[chukels911]

the announcement of Liberty undergoing an FBS feasibility study doesn't not come as as surprise to me BUT, Am i the only one who thinks that moving to the FBS within the next year or two is a poor idea? Appalachian state completed their feasibility study and were approved but they have not been invited into an FBS conference yet, and thats a program that is constantly on top of the FCS. How does Liberty think they can 1) get invited into the FBS and 2) Compete in said conference?

[Schfourteenteen]

We'll compete right away in most of the Olympic sports, have a 1 or 2 year adjusting period in football, and Basketball.....yeesh.

It's not a poor idea and here's why - we have the most to gain by moving up. We never know what offers may or may not come our way. There are two other VA schools in ODU and JMU who are in the mix that are probably more attractive than us.

More importantly, not taking an offer to move up leaves us looking the Big South or a gutted CAA in the face.

[Liberty22]

Not to mention, App State if im not mistaken, which i could be but i think they completed their feasability study sometime in August, of course they are not going to get any offers because thats right at the beginning of the football season. The conferences as well have been and are awaiting to see what other shifts are going to happen and who is going to jump ship. Once most of the dust settles, I would imagine APP ST and Liberty to get some calls.

[Chris Lang]

And to reiterate, how a team fares on a wins-losses level is not the determining factor on whether or not an FBS conference is interested. In fact, it plays little to no role.

Leagues are looking at Liberty's commitment to facilities, its compliance with Title IX, its increase in staffing and scholarships, its academics, its overall profile as a large Christian university that can bring prestige and money to a conference. The continued academic improvements across the board at Liberty are a huge factor in attracting any conference affiliation.

This much is certain: Liberty will not entertain any thoughts of moving to another FCS conference, nor is Liberty thinking of affiliate membership in an FBS conference for football only. There are only five schools in the country that play "up" for football and "down" for all other sports: Army (Indy/Patriot); Navy (Indy ... Big East/Patriot); San Diego State (Big East/Big West); BYU (Indy/WCC) and Hawaii (MWC/Big West). And the common thread of those five as that they've all been FBS for a significant amount of time.

The Big South will not allow Liberty to stick around as a full-time member while bolting and essentially destroying its football league. It's not good business. This is an all-or-nothing proposition.

[scuzdriver]

Don't forget the financial gains LU would get for moving up. I also believe it would help out in recruiting as well.

[flameshaw]

Guys, you may want to consider that the feasibility has already been completed and they are just dotting the i's and crossing the t's, and/or putting the presentation package together. I know they began work on it some time ago and it has always been the plan to announce the results/findings at the end of this year.
With the events of the past couple of weeks, it was just an opportune time to announce it now. How would the Carr group be able to say that we are ready to move now, and that we are the most "ready school" without doing the study?
As far as moving up, I am apprehensive. I just don't see where the people are going to come from to fill a 30K seat stadium and get the recruits we need to be a top flight football program. Hopefully I am wrong. I do have the utmost confidence in our administration and trust they are making the correct decisions. They certainly have more information/experience than I to draw from.

[bluedevilflame]

I hate seeing us leave FCS purely because I think the playoff system is 10x better than the bowl system. HOWEVER, I do understand the landscape of college football and know that the differences between money, name recognition, recruiting ability, and quality of opponents is second to none in FBS. If an opportunity arises, we can't say no in these times.

[TallyW]

The mountain isn't a miracle because the majority thought it could be done.

This is practically a done deal.

Our Chancellor is building the case (and it's a good one) that given the higher exposure, we'd become a great NATIONAL asset to any conference.

I'm fairly confident that Coach Gill was given a lot of detail to make him confident that he'll be part of building a FBS program with a national footprint... he's not here to court the CAA.

[LUconn]

And to reiterate, how a team fares on a wins-losses level is not the determining factor on whether or not an FBS conference is interested. In fact, it plays little to no role.

This can't be said enough on this forum. In fact it seems like it has to be said every week or so. Many will disagree with it. But the fact is a company that specializes in researching this very topic has concluded that we are the most ready of any current FCS team. Including Appalachian State and Villanova. Hopefully we can put this argument to rest.

[T-Dog]

If you want to know what a Feasibility report looks like, here's ours. The first paragraph on page 6 is interesting.

http://www.goasu.com/pdf8/805466.pdf?SP ... M_ID=21500

[Chris Lang]

I don't think the study is complete. When Carr came last year to look at facilities, it was to provide an initial assessment of the state of the program. First step of the process. This is a much more specific study being done now with the endgame in mind of FBS affiliation. That wasn't necessarily the case when they came last fall. I do agree with the thought that this study has been ongoing for at least a couple of months, and that the school is approaching the end of the process.

[logic]

As Lang said, the other details are infinitely more important when considering an FBS move. Those conferences will not even consider a school that still deals with Title IX issues. Also the scholarship levels are HUGE. Every sport here at Liberty is fully funded according to that article. There are A LOT of lower level FBS schools where that is not the case. The Sun Belt, MAC, or CUSA would love to get a school fully funded in all sports as it would raise the level of competition in said conference across all sports.

Not sure you guys understand how big it is to be fully funded in 20 sports. That is reserved for BCS conferences only, for the most part.

[Purple Haize]

Does anyone know how often we have been conducting some type of survey about moving up to FBS level? If we do jump, I'll believe it when I see it and I hope it makes sense in more ways then just being FBS.

[logic]

Does anyone know how often we have been conducting some type of survey about moving up to FBS level? If we do jump, I'll believe it when I see it and I hope it makes sense in more ways then just being FBS.

[Hold My Own]

And to reiterate, how a team fares on a wins-losses level is not the determining factor on whether or not an FBS conference is interested. In fact, it plays little to no role.

I keep saying this and nobody believes me! Just look back to that BRILLIANT post that i used against Purple showing how Boise St couldnt win at the FCS level then moves up to FBS and wins the conference title the next 8 out of 11 times or something like that.

I've never asked this before....can you pay to enter a conference? Say a entry fee of some sort that would be divided up among the teams?

[chukels911]

I love Liberty Football, dont get me wrong the program is amazing i love our school, but does anyone remember we DIDNT even win the Big South this year? even having the "best team we have ever had". If anyone one wants to see what it will be like for Liberty to be in the FBS just watch Missouri in the SEC next year, it will be awful.

[TH Spangler]

If you want to know what a Feasibility report looks like, here's ours. The first paragraph on page 6 is interesting.

http://www.goasu.com/pdf8/805466.pdf?SP ... M_ID=21500

Very interesting ..... Barber has been making trips to APP lately. NEW FBS conference .... interesting?

[R i]

Finally, the subcommittee recognized the creation of a new FBS league is certainly possible, but current NCAA restrictions, unless modified or challenged, pose financial and timing challenges.

From the ASU report.

[jcmanson]

You guys need to go back and watch the first part of the presser when Jerry is talking. It's almost like he's giving a farewell speech to the big south. It's not a matter of "if" this happens it's only a matter of "when". Jerry Jr knows A LOT more than what he said. Read between the lines. This is happening. It's happening soon. It will then be a "snowball effect" once we are FBS. We will compete very well on the Sunbelt/CUSA/MAC level right away. Once we're FBS the sky's the limit.

Listen to me if you want. Be pessimistic if you want. But this is what's happening.

[RVAparks]

I'm just interested to see what happens to the Big South. It seems like to me they are making no preemptive moves to protect themselves.

- Liberty is leaving
- Stony Brook is likely leaving
- I think Coastal will leave within the next 3 years
- Campbell has no aspirations to play scholarship football

So that leaves: Presbyterian, VMU, CSU, and Gardner-Webb for football. Maybe Winthrop gets going? Still that's 5.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Big South isn't a 8 team, non-football conference within the next 5 years.

[logic]

I love Liberty Football, dont get me wrong the program is amazing i love our school, but does anyone remember we DIDNT even win the Big South this year? even having the "best team we have ever had". If anyone one wants to see what it will be like for Liberty to be in the FBS just watch Missouri in the SEC next year, it will be awful.

Posts like this are starting to get annoying. Do you not listen to anything Manson says or are you just trolling?

UNDERSTAND - football success at the FCS level does not equal success at the FBS level. But since you went there, understand when we go, not if, when we go we will immediately boost from 63 to 85 scholarships and open ourselves up to a MUCH better level of athlete to recruit. Understand VERY FEW superstar 17 year old male athletes want to play for an FCS school. Small time. High school. Minor league. Call it what you will those guys want the big-time, ESPN, bowl games, etc.

Now given that we have a history of playing very well against FBS schools, don't you think we would be abe to compete at that level with the same amount of scholarships and much better recruiting? Thats just logical my friend and has LITTLE resemblance to Mizzou going to the SEC. DO YOU REALLY THINK WE'RE SCARED OF THE SUN BELT???

We would go into the Sun Belt and have the second highest average attendance in our first year!!!

Louisiana-Monroe? Are you kidding me? Western Kentucky averaged 15 k fans this year! They would be HAPPY to have us!!!

[jcmanson]

We could win the SunBelt within 3 years of us playing there. No exaggeration.

[Libertyflames10]

We could win the SunBelt within 3 years of us playing there. No exaggeration.

Let's not get too carried away now.

2011 FCS National Champions: Liberty University Flames

[Liberty4Life]

The Big South will not allow Liberty to stick around as a full-time member while bolting and essentially destroying its football league. It's not good business. This is an all-or-nothing proposition.

I assume that we're the most attractive school in the Big South (suck it, Radford). I also assume that when the Big South inevitably loses us, it would be very bad for the league (see RVASparks post from earlier).

That being said, is the Big South trying to offer us ANY sort of incentive to stick around? Having tournaments at our sites, more games on their crappy TV network? A bigger slice of the "Advanced Auto Parts" revenue pie? Are the Big South suits just going to let their league fall apart?*

*Oh wait, wasn't Big South commissioner Kyle Kallander the same person who presided over the SWAC's mass exodus and ran that conference into the ground?

[RVAparks]

We could win the SunBelt within 3 years of us playing there. No exaggeration.

Let's not get too carried away now.

2011 FCS National Champions: Liberty University Flames

I don't think that's getting carried away at all. It even may be a bit conservative. As I said a couple weeks ago we're better than two SunBelt teams this year (MTSU, FAU) and on par with two others ULM, Troy State. We have now have a coach that has built a comparable program before along with arguably better resources and recruiting grounds than almost anyone in the Sun Belt. There are plenty of examples around the country of where teams have succeeded in a short period of time.