[Rooster Cogburn]

Nick Pierce on the Twitter:

Liberty University becomes the 1st school ever to win the Big South Sasser Cup 5 consecutive years. #FlamesNation

[jcmanson]

Yep, great news. #FBSready

[SuperJon]

What does FBS ready have to do with sports other than football? I saw York tweet that and thought it was pretty dumb. Tell me why I'm wrong.

[logic]

FBS conference = better Olympic sports. If we aren't winning the Sasser Cup our Olympic sports might not be ready even though football is. Not that it would matter if Olympic sports aren't ready as we would go FBS anyway, but it is comforting knowing that moving up into a better conference our other sports would still do well.

It is all about funding. Lower level scholarship programs simply cannot compete. At the FBS level our Olympic sports would go up against an even playing field of other programs that are fully funded as very few in the Big South are. One simply needs to look at budgets and W-L records to see who has scholarship money and who doesn't. At the next level, everyone for the most part fully funds their programs with scholarships.

[jcmanson]

Just what logic said. We're looking to move all of our sports to an FBS conference. This is just further evidence that we're ready, athletic department wide, for this move.

[flamesfilmguy]

FBS conference = better Olympic sports.

I'll tell you what jon will say. FBS conferences olympic sports are not necessarily better. for instance. GSU moving to the sunbelt before VCU and ODU left the CAA was a step down. I would argue that Baseball in a FBS conference is not necessarily better depending on the FBS conference. now I will say if we are talking CUSA or ACC or FBS conferences like those then yes its probably, as a whole, a step up in competition. but just any old conference in FBS will not necessarily make the competition better. just my hmo

[jcmanson]

FBS conference = better Olympic sports.

I'll tell you what jon will say. FBS conferences olympic sports are not necessarily better. for instance. GSU moving to the sunbelt before VCU and ODU left the CAA was a step down. I would argue that Baseball in a FBS conference is not necessarily better depending on the FBS conference. now I will say if we are talking CUSA or ACC or FBS conferences like those then yes its probably, as a whole, a step up in competition. but just any old conference in FBS will not necessarily make the competition better. just my hmo

Generally speaking, you are correct. But Big South to any FBS is a step up in competition across the board.

[SuperJon]

Makes sense. Still think it's a little dumb but definitely makes sense.

[jcmanson]

Alot of people in the Athletic Department have been tweeting "#FBSready" alot. I think it's just doing whatever we can do to make ourselves more visible.

[logic]

FBS conference = better Olympic sports.

I'll tell you what jon will say. FBS conferences olympic sports are not necessarily better. for instance. GSU moving to the sunbelt before VCU and ODU left the CAA was a step down. I would argue that Baseball in a FBS conference is not necessarily better depending on the FBS conference. now I will say if we are talking CUSA or ACC or FBS conferences like those then yes its probably, as a whole, a step up in competition. but just any old conference in FBS will not necessarily make the competition better. just my hmo

Pointing out two extreme outliers is poor way to prove a point. Look at the Bell Curve. For every Augusta State or VCU there are a lot more "big boys" across all sports. Check out the latest NACDA rankings for total athletic departments -

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/nac ... 0530195334

Only 1 program without FBS football in the top 50, and its Princeton, and Princeton is a fine place to play any sport if you're looking 40 years down the road...

I love looking at these lists. For those of you who do not know, this is the "Sasser Cup" but for every single program in the country. I wish more people paid attention to this - who are the most successful athletic departments overall? We're ahead of some MAC programs, Sun Belt programs, and quite a few WAC programs. We should jump into the top 100 after June 14th update when golf is scored. A top 100 athletic department. Not bad.

Right now we're better than -

Memphis, Middle Tennessee State, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Hawaii, Georgia Southern, Southern Miss, Arkansas State, Louisiana Laf, Rice, Fresno State, Ball State, Buffalo, UALR, Miami Ohio, New Mexico State, etc. and so on and so forth just to name a few.

We're ahead of most of the WAC, Sun Belt, and a lot of the MAC. The MAC and Sun Belt wouldn't give us the time of day on their boards...what would they think knowing we have a better overall athletic department based on national finishes?

Our sports that scored thus far without golf and track included -

1. Swimming - 30 points
2. Men's soccer - 25 points
3. Women's Volleyball - 25 points
4. Women's basketball - 25 points


Golf will score a bunch for a 10th place finish, and Track may score as well. Michigan was 10th last year in men's golf and scored 66 points. That would put us at 171+, ahead of Mississippi, Rutgers, Georgia Tech, and Washington state to name a few.

So go tell your Georgia Tech friends and Ole Miss friends that Liberty has a better overall athletic department if they don't score any spring points.

[PAmedic]

Yeah.... lets keep this focused on all our student athletes who exemplified the best of LU.

Coaching attribute(s) debate thread can be found here