[jcmanson]

I think we could definitely make a jump to IA in the next 10 years, and I don't think we have to become a national player at the IAA level first. I would like for us to make the playoffs in at least 5 of the next 10 years, winning at least one game in the playoffs in 2 of those years, and making it to at least the semis one of those years. If we were able to do that (which is not a big if IMO) we would be ready to make the jump, and have the fans necessary for that.

[SuperJon]

If you can't compete at the I-AA level and 60-some scholarships, how can we compete with 90-something scholarship teams?

[Sly Fox]

Its 85 and it depends on your definition of the term compete. I think we can do it.

[El Scorcho]

Which they can't fill because of the price.

What price is that exactly? The room and board fee?

The Campus East housing. You'll understand here in a few weeks just how desperate they are getting to fill these dorms.

Okie dokie.

[Knucklehead]

Its 85 and it depends on your definition of the term compete. I think we can do it.

I still say it would be wise to have a few years of big time winning on this level before making a jump that we would not be close to ready for.

[new flame]

Great argument. Look at Va Tech. The Hokies were an average team, on the verge of firing Beamer, in...what was that conference?... before they joined the Big East. As soon as the entered the Big East, their recruiting jumped light years upward and they becanme a better team. Coaching continuity played a huge part of that as well.

We don't have to be great at FCS to have success in the BCS. Just moving up would bring the program upward. There are more examples of this: UCF and USF come to mind as teams who moved up and have competed well (esp. USF) at the next level without a lot of success at I-AA. The opposite example would be Marshall, which was slower to move up, and they were a dominant I-AA team first.

I'm not saying we're eligible for BCS, cause attendance - good as it was last season - is a long way from getting us there. The longer we keep Rocco, the higher our attendance numbers will be, cause success breeds more success. Winning pretty much cures everything.

Just MHO.

[SuperJon]

Great argument. Look at Va Tech. The Hokies were an average team, on the verge of firing Beamer, in...what was that conference?... before they joined the Big East. As soon as the entered the Big East, their recruiting jumped light years upward and they becanme a better team. Coaching continuity played a huge part of that as well.

We don't have to be great at FCS to have success in the BCS. Just moving up would bring the program upward. There are more examples of this: UCF and USF come to mind as teams who moved up and have competed well (esp. USF) at the next level without a lot of success at I-AA. The opposite example would be Marshall, which was slower to move up, and they were a dominant I-AA team first.

Look at those enrollments though. We have to get to 20-25,000 students, on campus, before we can even begin to think of going. Yes, we're growing big time right now, but we're going to hit a ceiling soon. We may have the dorms on campus to house these kids, but we don't have the roads (right now), we don't have the dining facilities (right now), we don't have the classrooms (right now) or the teachers (we just let go of a TON of math and history professors). Yes, these things are coming, but things happen. Something could happen to delay these things. I don't think we can begin to even contemplate the move until we are already at the 20-25,000 mark.

[Cider Jim]

When Marshall went up to DI-A, their enrollment at the time was probably only 15,000 (or less). What helped them was they had a town the size of Lynchburg in Huntington that was absolutely crazy about the Thundering Herd. When we had a home game, it was like the whole town closed town for the game. Everybody was there, and doing some serious tailgating.

I'd love to see Lynchburg rally around Liberty and our team, but I just don't know how realistic that is. If we could just get the various local churches to bring their youth groups to games, that would go a long way.

[El Scorcho]

I think everyone is making a big fuss over nothing. It's been set as a long-term goal, yes. And? I'm not worried at all about the school making the jump too soon. I'm pretty confident in the people who have to make the decisions about that sort of thing.

[SuperJon]

Stop being rational.


July is no month for that.

[new flame]

But I do not believe we will GET Eddie Van Halen until we have a most excellent music video!!

I'm not sure we need 20-25,000 to get the attendance we need to qualify for BCS. We had approx. 10k on campus and averaged 11,250 last year. With more success, the numbers of attendees from the community will grow substantially. If we can keep Roco. IF we can hold onto Rocco, we can average 15k maybe this year, certainly within 2 or 3. All we have to average to qualify is 15,000.

And we may not have the dining facilities, but we do have Hardee's right across the street.

[SuperJon]

But to get the bare minimum attendance would make us lose even more money than we are now. It would be irresponsible to move up until we could average 23,000 like App St.

[new flame]

Yes, I realize we've already got Rocco locked up for this season.

We'll have to get Jeff Barber in on this to REALLY get the answer that'll satisfy us both, but with a better conference comes more revenue. And more attendance, due to better quality opponents. Which leads to higher revenue. The right, regional conference wouldn't mean that we'd lose money competing at the next level. Chances are we'd be better off financially.

Then there's the "who'd want us" argument, which is what started this whole debate in the first place.

I'm gettin dizzy.

[new flame]

5-7 years, we're there.

[SuperJon]

Then in 5-7 years we can legitimately have this discussion.

[new flame]

No, in 5-7 years one of us can legitimately say, TOLD U SO!!!!!

[SuperJon]

If we are at an App St level in 5-7 years, I will agree with a possible move up. However, I'm more focused on getting to that App level than going I-A.

[JDUB]

IMHO i would rather us be dominant in I-AA than be terrible in I-A. I definitely think that we will eventually be I-A, but I can't put a timeline on it. we'll just have to see how the program grows over the next few years. But like i said, I'd rather us be really good in I-AA. I think this is what several of you are saying, but I just wanted to re-emphasize

[PAmedic]

wow

take a day off and look what I missed!

nice to see you boys carried on in my absence.

[jimflamesfan]

Other secular schools have used concerts to boost their attendence #s.

If it came to it, and we needed a way to get from the 11,000 or so now to the 15,000 level...I think we could pull off some kind of deal with Christian concerts after the games...that would pull in more youth groups.

I'm not saying that this is happening, or that it is needed, just that it would be a possibility if we needed to get the numbers. Even if we needed to get from say 16,000 in 3 years to that 20,000 mark.

[JDUB]

that has been discussed before. i think it would be awesome if tobymac would do one at a game, but i dont know if he would or not

[flamesfilmguy]

homecoming half time preformance anyone?

[JDUB]

i don't think we'll have any trouble packing out for homecoming. if we could get him to come it'd probably be better for a different game. of course, I'm not against him coming for homecoming, but if they put him there that day too, we'll be needing the upper deck badly

[SuperJon]

If he played at homecoming it'd give me a reason to go to the bathroom during halftime.

[PAmedic]

here's a thread on potential conf affiliations over on the new FCS board

http://www.championshipsubdivision.com/ ... ?f=4&t=239

no love for LU even though Jerry is gone. (Shocking)

evidently some at JMU feel Coastal would be a GREAT addition to the CAA