Liberty University Football

[sWiley]

Very, very impressive. On the field but even more so their home crowds and their stadium. They're bringing more fans to the game than most AAC programs. With the deep pockets they have and already well established fan support, this program could be a true sleeping giant.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

I agree. Noticed this from day one.

Good for them.

 

[blueraiderJT]

That stadium is beautiful. Cool place to see a game.

 

[dukewayne]

And apparently C-USA rejected them.

 

[mtfblue]

there stadium is 19k with plans to expand

 

[mtfblue]

everybody rejected them, not cusa.

 

[zreed]

Gross

 

[jbblueraider]

Liberty needs to stay independent. They won't be a good fit in any of the conferences.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

Liberty needs to stay independent. They won't be a good fit in any of the conferences.

Really? Says who?

 

[zreed]

Really? Says who?

...every FBS conference so far? They literally had to get a NCAA waiver to move up because no conference would touch them.

Personally I have no interest in my alma mater having even the loosest affiliation with Jerry Fallwel Jr

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

Specifically, why no interest?

...every FBS conference so far? They literally had to get a NCAA waiver to move up because no conference would touch them.

Personally I have no interest in my alma mater having even the loosest affiliation with Jerry Fallwel Jr

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

There is no interest because there is no benefit for a G5 conference to add anyone. I am sure for a chosen few their a PC view regarding Liberty.

In my opinion they should stay independent and grow their program. They have so many advantages that we didn't have...they can invest and invest big.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

If I read between the lines, I would assume that Reed's zinger was based on Jerry's statements.

I'm not so sure CUSA had a benefit for adding Charlotte or both F_U schools but if conferences were to blow up and realign to regions then I would like to hear out the pros and cons.

There is no interest because there is no benefit for a G5 conference to add anyone. I am sure for a chosen few their a PC view regarding Liberty.

In my opinion they should stay independent and grow their program. They have so many advantages that we didn't have...they can invest and invest big.

 

[zreed]

Specifically, why no interest?

Because they are a hyper conservative extension of the Baptist church which is a considerable cultural mismatch in any FBS conference. Jerry Falwell was a terrible hateful man and his son isn't much better.

People want to compare them to Notre Dame or BYU or even other schools with Baptist affiliation, when they are far closer to Bob Jones University.

They also have a roughly 10-1 ratio of online students to residential students, something few Blue Raiders ever passed up an opportunity to rag on Troy for a similar approach when we were conference mates.

On a completely different note, personally I do not think they will ever amount to anything substantial, Notre Dame made their inroads with Catholics in a time when they were about the only team consistently on TV and no other religious university will ever have the connection to followers of that religion as BYU has with Mormons, which also gives them a pretty great chance of signing any elite prospect who happens to be Mormon, elite Baptist athletes will never feel that same pull to Liberty. Add to that, BYU has a natty.

Liberty's only hope at building a fanbase outside of their students and graduates is trying to recreate a Tim Tebow like fanbase, but that was one of the greatest college football players of all time playing at one of the bigger programs in the country. It's a lot easier to adopt a great player for four years because he's such a good Christian example who plays the majority of his games on national television, than it is to adopt a college football team that plays an independent schedule of mostly G5 schools that is rarely on national tv.

I don't believe they'll ever be more than a better than average G5, they may even be consistently better than us, but they'll be spending a lot more money for marginally better results.

 

[blueboro007]

...every FBS conference so far? They literally had to get a NCAA waiver to move up because no conference would touch them.

Personally I have no interest in my alma mater having even the loosest affiliation with Jerry Fallwel Jr

Hell, if the crazies at Cal Berkley are in a conference than why not???

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

...every FBS conference so far? They literally had to get a NCAA waiver to move up because no conference would touch them.

Personally I have no interest in my alma mater having even the loosest affiliation with Jerry Fallwel Jr

Hell, if the crazies at Cal Berkley are in a conference than why not???

Left winger good or acceptable
Right wingers not.

It’s simple

 

[zreed]

Left winger good or acceptable
Right wingers not.

It’s simple

It's not a matter of "acceptability", I'm not challenging their right to teach what they want nor am I suggesting they shouldn't be allowed to be an NCAA member, but most athletic conferences try to have some sort of peer mentality amongst its members and Liberty University does not share a lot of common ground with most FBS members, especially not with groups of FBS members that are, like in the case of CUSA, comprised of mostly large, public, and non religious schools, that don't have 10 online students for every on campus student.

Liberty has different goals, principles, unique revenue streams, and to add to all of that starkly different politics.

I do not blame Liberty for wanting to exist and play football, I do not blame FBS conferences for choosing not to offer them membership based on the aforementioned differences.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

There are lots of schools that don't fit like most...SMU, Rice, Tulsa, Stanford, Tulane, Baylor and Vandy. I don't think any of the Academies fit either (Air Force, Army, Navy). There may be a few others.

Either way, it will interesting to see how they progress.

 

[bluefutcpa]

I say bring em on. They can’t be worse than UTSA or UTEP

 

[RaiderDawg78]

I say bring em on. They can’t be worse than UTSA or UTEP

No kidding. We can’t argue the Texas schools bring us TV exposure because our conference isn’t on TV. I say we would be smarter as a G5 school to realign with regional teams. At this point give me a conference of 10-12 teams within 500 miles of M’boro.

 

[crposton]

No kidding. We can’t argue the Texas schools bring us TV exposure because our conference isn’t on TV. I say we would be smarter as a G5 school to realign with regional teams. At this point give me a conference of 10-12 teams within 500 miles of M’boro.

I have looked into that before and this is what I cam up with.

Conference A
East
Appalachian State
Charlotte
Coastal Carolina
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Old Dominion

West
UAB
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
Marshall
MTSU
WKU

Conference B
East
Arkansas State
Louisiana - Lafayette
Louisiana - Monroe
South Alabama
Southern Miss
Troy

West
Louisiana Tech
North Texas
Rice
UTEP
UTSA
Texas State

 

[zreed]

There are lots of schools that don't fit like most...SMU, Rice, Tulsa, Stanford, Tulane, Baylor and Vandy. I don't think any of the Academies fit either (Air Force, Army, Navy). There may be a few others.

Either way, it will interesting to see how they progress.

I said they don't share much common ground with the majority of FBS members, but they aren't entirely unique.

Like Baylor, Vanderbilt, Rice, Stanford, Wake Forest, Northwestern et al. They are private. But Baylor is the only one they share much more commonality with beyond private and none of them have 10 online students to every on campus students and let's be serious, those are mostly among the best schools in the country academically speaking.

There are FBS members with similar online enrollments, but not many.

There are other religuously affiliated programs, but not many.

The point is, they have very few relative peers and they may be the most uniquely different FBS program.

 

[zreed]

No kidding. We can’t argue the Texas schools bring us TV exposure because our conference isn’t on TV. I say we would be smarter as a G5 school to realign with regional teams. At this point give me a conference of 10-12 teams within 500 miles of M’boro.

I'm with you and Liberty is nowhere in the discussion.

Let's start with Middle and Western.

Add to that 7-12 of:

App State
Charlotte
Coastal
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
Old Dominion
South Alabama
Southern Miss
Troy
UAB

That's fourteen options right there that keeps east of the Mississippi.

If you want to include AAC members we can include:

Central Florida
Cincinnati
East Carolina
Memphis
South Florida
Temple

As long as we're talking hypotheticals, we might as well include:

James Madison
Ohio

And if we wanted to expand beyond the Mississippi but stay east of Texas we can include:

Arkansas State
Louisiana
Louisiana Tech
Missouri State

Point being, there are countless options for geographic realignment that don't come with Liberty's baggage.

 

[RaiderDawg78]

I'm with you and Liberty is nowhere in the discussion.

Point being, there are countless options for geographic realignment that don't come with Liberty's baggage.

I get what you are saying and why you say it. I just don’t see “baggage” when I see Liberty sports teams. It’s just another school. I don’t think more or less of Big South members because they were in a conference with Liberty. It doesn’t influence my opinions of those schools at all.

And conferences having the same “peer mentality” went out the door with TV contracts. I would rather be in a conference with Troy and Liberty for location than the F_Us, or any schools in Louisiana/Texas.

And I wish we had been as proactive as Liberty in the online distance learning. There’s a reason every school is adding more online programs. I think it’s pretty awesome they have 100,000+ online paying tuition to the school - I wish we had more.

Anyway, I say bring’em on.

 

[zreed]

I get what you are saying and why you say it. I just don’t see “baggage” when I see Liberty sports teams. It’s just another school. I don’t think more or less of Big South members because they were in a conference with Liberty. It doesn’t influence my opinions of those schools at all.

And conferences having the same “peer mentality” went out the door with TV contracts. I would rather be in a conference with Troy and Liberty for location than the F_Us, or any schools in Louisiana/Texas.

And I wish we had been as proactive as Liberty in the online distance learning. There’s a reason every school is adding more online programs. I think it’s pretty awesome they have 100,000+ online paying tuition to the school - I wish we had more.

Anyway, I say bring’em on.

I agree with not wanting to be in Texas, I agree with not wanting to be in Louisiana(though if La Tech wanted to be the one school west of the Mississippi, I'd be glad to have them), what I don't get is not wanting to be in Florida or what you believe Liberty actually brings to the table in "location" that ODU doesn't already bring both of which are in an area we don't really recruit.

 

[RaiderDawg78]

I agree with not wanting to be in Texas, I agree with not wanting to be in Louisiana(though if La Tech wanted to be the one school west of the Mississippi, I'd be glad to have them), what I don't get is not wanting to be in Florida or what you believe Liberty actually brings to the table in "location" that ODU doesn't already bring both of which are in an area we don't really recruit.

I don’t think playing in front of hundreds of fans at FIU or FAU helps our recruiting that much. Most of our recruits outside of TN are from Georgia, where we rarely play. We would be better served recruiting wise with an ESPN or Fox Sports TV deal versus playing the F_Us.

I never said Liberty brings something to the table ODU doesn't. Switch them today and I wouldn't care. They are interchangeable as conference mates to me. Drop both or add both and it's the same difference. I'm just not opposed to being in a conference with Liberty.

All I said is I would prefer a regional conference. I would like all our conference members to be <500 miles or less drive from MT. Any current FBS schools in that range would fine by me.

 

[zreed]

I don’t think playing in front of hundreds of fans at FIU or FAU helps our recruiting that much. Most of our recruits outside of TN are from Georgia, where we rarely play. We would be better served recruiting wise with an ESPN or Fox Sports TV deal versus playing the F_Us.

I never said Liberty brings something to the table ODU doesn't. Switch them today and I wouldn't care. They are interchangeable as conference mates to me. Drop both or add both and it's the same difference. I'm just not opposed to being in a conference with Liberty.

All I said is I would prefer a regional conference. I would like all our conference members to be <500 miles or less drive from MT. Any current FBS schools in that range would fine by me.

We seldom play in Georgia, but we share a border with the state.

Playing in Florida is definitely important and I wouldn't worry as much about the 500 mile radius unless the conference has fewer than twelve members.

As much as I want us playing in Florida, there are lots of 12 or 14 member conferences I could draw up that would have us in the north with 5 or 6 others and a nice tight footprint.

Look, Liberty is a cultural mismatch, they'll have different priorities, different interests, and we do not need Liberty to build a conference with a tighter footprint, especially because from what I can see they bring deep pockets, but nothing else of substance that cannot be found in other regional programs we have far more in common with.

 

[RaiderDawg78]

We seldom play in Georgia, but we share a border with the state.

Playing in Florida is definitely important and I wouldn't worry as much about the 500 mile radius unless the conference has fewer than twelve members.

As much as I want us playing in Florida, there are lots of 12 or 14 member conferences I could draw up that would have us in the north with 5 or 6 others and a nice tight footprint.

Look, Liberty is a cultural mismatch, they'll have different priorities, different interests, and we do not need Liberty to build a conference with a tighter footprint, especially because from what I can see they bring deep pockets, but nothing else of substance that cannot be found in other regional programs we have far more in common with.

Nobody said need Liberty.

You are clear, you do not want MT to be in a conference with Liberty. Your first comment when someone said something positive about the football stadium was gross.

The rest of us don’t care one way or another about Liberty. I sure don’t care about their religious affiliation when It comes to sports. They’re just another regional school with a nice stadium and good attendance.

 

[zreed]

Nobody said need Liberty.

You are clear, you do not want MT to be in a conference with Liberty. Your first comment when someone said something positive about the football stadium was gross.

The rest of us don’t care one way or another about Liberty. I sure don’t care about their religious affiliation when It comes to sports. They’re just another regional school with a nice stadium and good attendance.

"The rest of us"?

Okay

 

[sWiley]

I don't care about anything but their athletics to be honest, and I'd venture to guess most others feel the same. If they put a good product on the field/court and pack the stands, then I'm impressed.

 

[dukewayne]

For some, it's always that cultural-religious thing when it comes down to it The so called tolerant and diverse schools only really goes so far when it comes to them conservative or Evangelical Christians.

Falwell? Hate? How many people even know that Falwell Jr is in the top office there? How many people even know that Falwell Sr has been dead for a while now?

There may be plenty of reasons to add or not to add Liberty to a conference such as C-USA. The one main reason oft mentioned seems to have little to do with any of those reasons.

I don't know Liberty Univ well enough to know all their details, but I gather they have a ton of money and are willing to spend it on athletics. They may not pass MT in the next few years, but given the financial differences we may be watching Liberty U athletics passing MT right on by in 5-10 years. Plus whenever I've seen any of their sporting events on TV, they seem to almost always have tremendous turnout with enthusiasm. They seem motivated and into their team.

 

[mtfblue]

For some, it's always that cultural-religious thing when it comes down to it The so called tolerant and diverse schools only really goes so far when it comes to them conservative or Evangelical Christians.

Falwell? Hate? How many people even know that Falwell Jr is in the top office there? How many people even know that Falwell Sr has been dead for a while now?

There may be plenty of reasons to add or not to add Liberty to a conference such as C-USA. The one main reason oft mentioned seems to have little to do with any of those reasons.

I don't know Liberty Univ well enough to know all their details, but I gather they have a ton of money and are willing to spend it on athletics. They may not pass MT in the next few years, but given the financial differences we may be watching Liberty U athletics passing MT right on by in 5-10 years. Plus whenever I've seen any of their sporting events on TV, they seem to almost always have tremendous turnout with enthusiasm. They seem motivated and into their team.

They have already passed MT in terms of facilities, fan support and getting close to play on the field. I have been on there campus.

 

[zreed]

Falwell? Hate? How many people even know that Falwell Jr is in the top office there? How many people even know that Falwell Sr has been dead for a while now?

Falwell's hateful and controversial comments are numerous.

Liberty University is the most unique FBS institution in the country, that is why no conference wanted them and I expect that will continue to be the case.

 

[jbblueraider]

I agree with zreed. I don't want my university, or the conference we're in, to have any association with an institution that Falwell had anything to do with. As I stated above, they should stay independent.

 

[stuckinthemiddle2]

I say bring em on. They can’t be worse than UTSA or UTEP

UTEP was the first school (as Texas Western) to have an all-minority starting five in an NCAA national championship basketball game. This broke down racial barriers all over the nation.

On the contrary, the head of (cough-cough) "Liberty" shames religion by constantly fawning over crooked greedy politicians who break all ten commandments on a regular basis. When an anti-Trump Christian activist came to Liberty to pray with students, he was forcibly removed by campus police.

"Liberty" is also long associated with virulent homophobia.

 

[stuckinthemiddle2]

I'm with you and Liberty is nowhere in the discussion.

Let's start with Middle and Western.

Add to that 7-12 of:

App State
Charlotte
Coastal
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
Old Dominion
South Alabama
Southern Miss
Troy
UAB

That's fourteen options right there that keeps east of the Mississippi.

If you want to include AAC members we can include:

Central Florida
Cincinnati
East Carolina
Memphis
South Florida
Temple

As long as we're talking hypotheticals, we might as well include:

James Madison
Ohio

And if we wanted to expand beyond the Mississippi but stay east of Texas we can include:

Arkansas State
Louisiana
Louisiana Tech
Missouri State

Point being, there are countless options for geographic realignment that don't come with Liberty's baggage.

Ohio University is one of the original five charter members of the MAC. They will not be leaving that conference to be in a league with Missouri State, Coastal Carolina, Troy, etc.

 

[dukewayne]

Back to the "hateful" comments by Falwell. I don't even need to look further than this thread to see hate. Some people seem deluded in their beliefs that their hatred is somehow justified and/or moral while condemning others for that which they themselves do.

 

[zreed]

Ohio University is one of the original five charter members of the MAC. They will not be leaving that conference to be in a league with Missouri State, Coastal Carolina, Troy, etc.

Thanks for attempting to clear up what I clearly stated was a hypothetical.

Good thing I got to 14 possible conference mates before mentioning them, or anyone from the AAC, or anyone from west of the Mississippi.

Further well done by you to cherry pick programs like Coastal, Troy and Missouri State, none of whom would be my top choice either.

Ohio has a great rivalry with Marshall.

Could they possibly be interested in a conference that looked like this:

North
Ohio
Marshall
ODU
MT
WKU
App
Charlotte

South
UAB
USA
USM
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
FAU
FIU

Probably not, but I'd still ask them.

As long as we're talking hypotheticals, what if some AAC teams were interested in the tighter footprint, suppose we replaced Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Georgia State and South Alabama with Cincinnati, ECU, Memphis, UCF and USF?

Would that be a conference that might be interesting to Ohio, oh great keeper of Bobcat knowledge?

 

[zreed]

Back to the "hateful" comments by Falwell. I don't even need to look further than this thread to see hate. Some people seem deluded in their beliefs that their hatred is somehow justified and/or moral while condemning others for that which they themselves do.

Falwell made many anti semitic, homophibic, and reductionist comments against other groups in his life, all in the name of "spreading the gospel".

I have no problem with anyone based on their religion, unless they use that religion to discriminate or attempt to use it to legislate. I do not hate Christians, hell I wouldn't say I hated Jerry Falwell, but I wouldn't want any association with the man or the university he founded.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

You make it like you are more tolerant. Not true. Everyone is prejudice towards opposing views. Make no mistake.

Falwell made many anti semitic, homophibic, and reductionist comments against other groups in his life, all in the name of "spreading the gospel".

I have no problem with anyone based on their religion, unless they use that religion to discriminate or attempt to use it to legislate. I do not hate Christians, hell I wouldn't say I hated Jerry Falwell, but I wouldn't want any association with the man or the university he founded.