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Post by jimflamesfan on Jan 6, 2005 21:58:07 GMT -5
There seems to be a lot of talk about the Big South being part of the problem for Liberty sports.
I know we've talked about this in many other sections, but I thought I'd open a thread just for it.
As for me, I see Sly Fox's point. Regardless what we think, the Southern Conference won't take us. Look, they passed us up for Elon two years ago, and now it looks like they'll pass on us for Coastal next.
Secondly, I really don't think it's that much of a step up. ETSU got a 13th seed in the Men's bb tourney from the SoCon. So what, Wintrop from the Big South had a 14th seed the twice a couple of years ago.
I think that LU has to focus on becomming dominant in the Big South...to the point that other conferences WANT LU...but LU needs to focus on dominating the conference for the next 10 years, and at that point it needs to skip the Southern and go for the Atlantic 10.
That's my opinion. As for the Big South, I'm happy that LU at least is in a conference and gets a chance for automatic bids. There are a lot of D-II schools that probably would envy being in the Big South. Hopefully the Big South will try harder to get more football schools. I don't care at this point if we need to pick up D-II schools like Wingate and Presbyterian College. We need some Football schools to even have a chance at the playoffs.
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Post by belcherboy on Jan 6, 2005 23:18:41 GMT -5
Look, they passed us up for Elon two years ago, and now it looks like they'll pass on us for Coastal next. sports.espn.go.com/ncb/teamsched?teamId=2210Take a look at Elon's schedule above. They lost to Bluefield College?? When I was at Liberty, my roomates brother (who D3 ball I think) played a game at Bluefield College. They were pretty bad then. They aren't DI and the only wins I can tell that Elon has is against non DI schools. After looking at some of the teams in the Southern, it is not that much a step up from the Big South. Even their top teams haven't won many "quality" games. The Big South teams have even beaten a few of them. I have to agree, Liberty boys needs to concentrate on becoming a dominating member of the Big South first. Play the same role the women are playing (winning EVERY year) or at least win the championship every other year. Beat a couple of big conference lower end teams each season and we might get an invite to decent mid major. I'm glad we aren't in the Southern though. They seem to be similar to the Big South only with more teams in their conference.
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Post by eddantes on Jan 7, 2005 12:57:17 GMT -5
Problem - I talked with Kim Graham about changing conferences last year, and he said that "while that is somethign we would look into, to be honest, no one is knocking on our door."
You know why? It's not about sports - because conferences take into account two different things - athletics, and ACADEMICS. LU could dominate athletics, but the academics side would still suffer.
In the Fall of 2000, I ran for the sophomore class president. I came in second of five candidates, which ain't bad, but still - and a point I made was that our retention rate was terrible, and that our SAT scores weren't impressive - the 25-75 SAT Range (meaning that 25 percent scored lower than the first number and 75 percent scored lower than the second) was like 720 - 1190. Now, the first number is HORRENDOUS. I checked, and it was the lowest in the nation. I don't think you can play football with a score that low. The 1190 is at least respectable.
Now, if LU were to curb admission, institute a minimum SAT score and weed out the people who would fail or drop out of school after one year (hence the low retention rate), you would automatically make for a better school academically - and then maybe the SoCOn would look at us.
Of course, LU can't curb admission, because we need as many people on campus to pay the bills. A 6-5 football team doesn't come cheap, you know.
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Post by Duntonville on Jan 7, 2005 13:11:54 GMT -5
Actually, I did hear (from maybe not so reliable sources) that they will be curbing admissions in a year or two because of all the recent growth.
They definately need to do that. Keeping the school around 10,000 until academic "excellence" (for us: mediocrity with a good honors program) can be achieved would be the best thing for the school.
Can anyone confirm the coming pause in growth? Anyone know anything about this past year's SAT scores?
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Post by Duntonville on Jan 7, 2005 13:13:10 GMT -5
how about MFAT scores?
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Post by LUconn on Jan 7, 2005 14:48:18 GMT -5
Ya know, I've been reading up at different places and how conference affiliation affects academics. And I've found 1 thing to be true: What conference you're in has no affect on you academics, whatsoever. Nobody anywhere has been able to prove to me or show me an example of how an athletic affiliation has any effect within the schools that are in it. And I refuse to believe it until someone can show me. I think the problem we're talking about is that the conference would be interested in graduation rates for the athletes. That's the only thing they would care about so the numbers don't look bad. I don't have any hard proof of LU's grad rate of athletes but I would think it would be pretty high. We don't have pro calibur players come here so they need to graduate in order not to be bums. I've seen former players that have long since used up eligibility in my classes working to get their degree.
Anyway, as for SoCon not being that much of a step up, the main difference is a team can rise up out of that conference to make a huge upset in the regular season. (see college of charleston a few years back). And that is a good building block of a program. If you can do it in the regular season, it can happen in the tourney. and that is precisely the formula that Gonzaga used. Last year they were hyped up beyond belief. This year they're very good but not hyped and have national respect. Especially in the eyes of recruites which makes for a good cycle. Dominating the Big South does nothing for anybody. Note Winthrop.
edit: I have found that the Big 10 has some kind of program with their professors that is supposed to further academia but they're the only ones. And I'm skeptical of it anyway.
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Post by grimmy 50 on Jan 7, 2005 15:25:23 GMT -5
Man LUconn - I have to disagree.
First, I agree that academics have far less to do with conference affiliation than is advertised. Look at the Big East/ACC conflict. The bottom line for that ACC raid/Big East counter raid was football. There was no talk of Miami and VT academic excellence. The only talk I heard of was 2 top 10 teams with either Syracuse or BC to follow to make it a superconference with 12 teams and a playoff. The Big East in turn raided Conference USA schools that made little geographic sense. If academics was part of the raid, why didnt the Big East take Army or Navy? Army and Navy are much better positioned within the geography of the Big East and are much better academic institutions that Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida for goodness sake!
Now, to the part I disagree with. You noted one example of how a team could rise up. If Winthrop had knocked off a team, your arguement would make no sense. Bottom line - the SoCon knocked off a team once, and the Big South didnt. Do you really think Liberty gains anything by moving to the SoCon? The SoCon may have a slightly better chance in seeding than the Big South, but you have to admit that the move is only slightly better than latteral. If you are happy with slightly better than latteral, then knock on the door of the SoCon.
Eddantes brought up a good point from Kim Graham "while that is somethign we would look into, to be honest, no one is knocking on our door." We tend to look on LU athletics with rose colored glasses because we are alumni. Our alumni are few and spread out. Talk to you non-LU friends. Most of them probably havent even heard of Liberty. Take that to the SoCon level. Why would they want us? Why would any conference outside the Big South want us?
Kim Graham is right. We have to make it so a conference would want us. The question is how do we do that. I partially agree with belcherboy - we have to dominate like the women. You cant compare the LU women to the Winthrop men. Winthrop didnt continually dominate like the LU women. LU has to pick it up in men's football and basketball. While the LU women dominate, women sports dont inspire a conference raid. A Liberty conference move would have to be mutually beneficial which means Liberty would have to generate revenue for the conference and in a lesser degree make geographic sense. Keep in mind that any conference that picks up LU will have to take the Dr. Falwell baggage (I say that in the most loving way I can).
All that being said, Liberty and the Big South are married and there is really no hope of ever moving conferences unless Liberty makes a committment to win Big South Men's Football and Basketball titles on a regular basis. That is the harsh truth.
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Post by eddantes on Jan 7, 2005 15:31:25 GMT -5
Couple of notes: LU's athletes have a higher graduation rate than LU's student body, believe it or not. In fact, in 2001 Liberty tied for second place with a grad rate 31 percentage points higher for athletes. Athletes also have a 3.0 GPA...
I'm not criticizing the athletes, but instead the people who go to college for the first time and slack-off and eventually fail out, and those guys who are frankly too dumb to know the answer to the Danny Lovett question "Jesus is what?" ("awesome," for those whose tenure predates the Danny Lovett era. He says it all the time. Ugh, forget it).
But I am saying that when expansion comes around, the conference body itself looks at academia as well - in a recent post about expansion on the Big South message board, the commish said "Our CEOs, however, are adamant that new members be a compatible institutionally, and academically, as well as athletically" thus proving my point.
Now, having a good team affects academics. Back when Georgetown had its run of Final Four basketball teams, it saw its applications increase tremendously. WIth more applications, you can be more selective at the quality of student that winds up attending your institution.
Smarter students = better academics = more presitge = more money = better sports = more money (again) = more applications = more money (again) = smarter students = more wealthy alumni = more presitge = more money (notice a trend?) = better sports = smarter students
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Post by PittLU on Jan 7, 2005 15:48:01 GMT -5
Georgetown success cannot be compared to what happens at a lower level DI school. Are you telling me that if JMU strings together a couple more DI-AA titles that the student population will have a better SAT score? Take that a step further, can you say that USC has a smarter student enrollment with back to back national championships? How about UCONN with the men and women success?
I do agree that athletics get better with more national exposure. Look at the New Years Eve and Day Bowl teams. They are teams that are there every year. I wouldnt say that Michigan gets a better enrollment every time they are in Rose Bowl. I do agree that bowls are a "National Commercial", but attracting smarter students.........I dont buy it, especially on a lower DI level.
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aLUmnus
Full Member
old school LU
Posts: 192
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Post by aLUmnus on Jan 7, 2005 16:50:02 GMT -5
LUPITT is right. For a schools like Georgetown who always have high academic standards, the number of applications they get don't make them more selective. It just makes more applications they have to go through to get the same crop of students they got before. Georgetown isn't a terribly large school, so they aren't looking for volume, but for quality. And they'll get the quality every year because of their academic reputation, not how good their basketball teams are.
This is more about making our athletics better, not necessarily our academics. The two don't have to be on the same page.
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Post by gest2b on Jan 7, 2005 18:06:36 GMT -5
fellas, ed is right. You don't get "smarter" students applying to the school (due to a highly successful sports program), you just get more applications. The applicant pool, however, has the same make-up as previous years.
Say there were 100 applicants with 1400+ 200 with 1300-1400 400 with 1200-1300 800 with 1100-1200 1400 with 1000-1100
etc.
Then in the new applicant pool there may be
150 with 1400+ 280 with 1300- 500 with 1200-13 1000 with 1100-1200 1900 with 1000-1100 etc.
If you accept the same # of students then that means your selectivity goes up.
I'm pretty sure that I remember that VT had higher selectivity after the national title game.
I think this could have a profound effect on LU if and when we reach our enrollment peak/capacity. A great sports program would affect the applicant pool in more ways than one.
-I personally never went to an LU basketball game until Dunton came on and they started winning (I was a student the 2 previous years). Because of the 2 year success, I am a fan for life...both in basketball and football. I am much more likely to give to the school now, and I am a much more "satisfied customer" (not that I paid for it though). Once "satisfied customers" graduate, they are much more likely to promote LU, give, and send their kids. There's no way that I would be on this message board today if it wasn't for Dunton's successful years.
-generate more school spirit, increasing the student retention numbers (I don't know about some of you who were on campus, but I felt a pretty significant difference last year) -attract high schoolers -have a great event for CFAW...what if CFAW had been on the weekend of that championship basketball game? -many other domino effects like ed mentioned
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Post by eddantes on Jan 7, 2005 20:29:44 GMT -5
Hey Gest2b - I don't know you, but I like ya already.
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Post by Sly Fox on Jan 8, 2005 0:30:19 GMT -5
Wow! I check the site tonight after a busy day and this thread blew me away! How great it is to have a place for a discussion like this?
That said, I'll reiterate my well-known thoughts on this subject since we have plenty of new posters.
Do I want to ditch the Big South? YES
Do I think it will happen anytime soon? NO
Do I want to move to the Southern Conference? NO
I can't think of one good reason for us to join the SoCon. Its like putting cynder blocks around your basement and throwing some plywood on top of them. Sure, you are moving up to a higher level ... but you are still in the basement. After all the realignment the past few years, most conferences now require tight contracts for admission that make it VERY difficult to move to a better league when it comes available. Do we really want to be chained to that group of schools? I certainly hope not.
The A-10 would've been a perfect fit for LU. And we made efforts to join that league a couple of years ago when they were looking at expansion. But one factor that wasn't mentioned in all the previous posts came into play .... a bunch of Catholic university presidents had absolutely ZERO interest in letting a bunch of unenlightened Evangelicals into their pristine world. Even though we would have helped them in their football efforts and would have made a nice fit geographically speaking, they simply wouldn't consider us. Its too bad because the A-10 would've given us recruiting exposure into hoops hotbeds in the NE and Midwest. And it would've packed our schedule with legitimate name basketball schools. Ciest la vie.
Frankly speaking, the academics side of things has very little to do with conference alignments these days. Its all about how college presidents & ADs can make money. If a college president thinks adding Liberty to their league will make them money then they will be more than happy to tender us an invitation. But right now, we can't even make money for ourselves, much less anyone else. That has to change.
I too have also heard from sources on campus that the school is turning applicants away for the Fall of 2005 for the first time ever. This can be nothing but great news to those of us who have diplomas fromt he school. Everyone of us had friends at LU who had no business being on a college campus. But as long as their bills were paid, they were in good standing. But these guys eventually went home and told everyone where they went to school damaging our reputation. Its about time we finally starting raising our entrance standards.
Sop it looks like we'll bide our time here in the Big South until the landscape changes. I do believe we are in store for another major realignment in the next year or so as all the borderline IA schools who can't meet home attendance totals get sent back down to IAA. Perhaps it will open up a more attractive option for us.
By the way, someone mentioned the service academies earlier int his thread. I would LOVE to see us schedule the academies whenever we can. I little known benefit of having Army, Navy or Air Force come to your house is that it attracts a ton of veterans living in the area to your facility (I saw it here in Houston when Army & Navy were both in C-USA). In Liberty's case, anytime you can get locals to show up on campus it is good thing.
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Post by jimflamesfan on Jan 8, 2005 15:34:32 GMT -5
Wow, lot of people talking here.
First off, I agree with Guest2b...as far as school spirt goes...this is one area where Liberty seems to be improving, and may improve even more with some success in Football and Basketball.
For the people in Lynchburg, last year I went to the Radford game near the end of the season and I actually had to wait about 15 minutes in line to get a ticket! (This was the last regular season game that didn't mean anything because LU had already wrapped up a #1 seed because Birminham Southern wasn't eligible for the BSC tourney). There must have been at least 7,000 people there for a regular season Big South game. With success in FB & BB sports...Liberty could start producing revenue...I also think Liberty Ice Hockey could produce revenue quickly if they turned the Shilling center into a 3,000 seat hockey rink like they planned...look at the link under other sports...we already dominate against big schools there, and we already charge for tickets. Anything to get more local people to the games.
The other thing LU needs to work on is the ticket office and advertising for sports. Come on, the original schedule for Men's basketball had the wrong dates for the JMU scrimmage and it also listed the wrong day for the New Hapshire game and the wrong time for the Arkansas State game...During the Big South Tournament two years ago when LU hosted it, I called the ticket office, and they weren't sure what time Liberty was playing its second game. LU puts up billboards for football after the first two home games are already over. Try calling the ticket office and getting a busy signal and no one there. If they can sell tickets for the Living Christmas Tree over the web, why can't you get season tickets for football or basketball over the web...and why can't they put a map on that site that shows people where to park?
As far as academics...I don't know LUPitt, but I went to UPJ (a branch campus of Pitt) for 2 years and then transferred to Liberty for my last two years. There wasn't a huge difference in acadamics. It is true that LU probably attracks more students that don't belong at college and drop out...but as far as the classes and work...about the same I would say. And the person that mentioned more LU athletes graduating...that's got to be a positive for the sports.
So ending, LU does have to dominate & improve school spirit and academics...but I believe that it looks like these things are improving...maybe not as fast as we would want, but improving none-the-less.
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Post by eddantes on Jan 8, 2005 16:46:11 GMT -5
I have to admit, that the spirit is a lot better than when I was a student two years ago (my gosh, has it been that long?). When I was a senior, my younger brother was a freshman - and he was prepped to go to his first football game, so he and a bunch of his friends went to Williams Stadium an hour before the game hoping to get a good seat... And they were the only ones there. Back then, people didn't start making there way over to the stadium until after kick-off. At least now the stadium is relatively full like 5 minutes after the start.
Just a couple of counter-points though - Here in Virginia Beach, there is talk about Old Dominion University starting a football team... the athletic director though said that NO division I-AA team makes money in the country. None. If you want cash from your team, jump to D-I... But that ain't happening for a LOOONG time at LU.
As for hockey, just a couple of notes: yeah, our team is pretty good - but it's a club team, and people don't understand that. It's pretty much the equivalent of our champion intramural flag football team beating the intramural flag football teams of North Carolina.
But the reason people go to those games isn't necessarily because people want to go watch hockey, but students want to get off-campus on Friday night. LU of course has a 12:30 a.m. curfew on weekend nights, but hockey is an approved late-night event... So people drive to Roanoke at 11, buy a ticket, stay for a period or so, flirt with girls, eat at the Denny's on 460, and then hang out for a few hours before returning at like 3:30... All you need to show is a ticket, you don't actually have to be there (trust me, I know - I did that).
I'm in favor of having a hockey rink on campus, for the simple purpose of actually having an ice rink - there are NONE between Charlottesville and Roanoke, belive it or not. You can generate money by having kid's hockey leagues, or just having people ice skate, but don't think that you'll have the same enthusiasm for the hockey team that you do now if and when you build a rink and move the team into D-I competition....
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Post by jimflamesfan on Jan 8, 2005 19:17:19 GMT -5
Hockey: I disagree about the hockey. I think it would be popular. Already know the difference between D-1 and club...don't suggest going D-1...stay D-II...people will still come...other schools like IUP with rink near campus...see whole thread under "Other Sports"...
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Post by PittLU on Jan 9, 2005 12:51:13 GMT -5
I have to agree about hockey Ed. I stated that earlier in the "Other Sports" (former grimmy50). The hockey was great because it was an approved late night activity. I knew of a lot of people who used that event to go bar hoping. Being from Pittsburgh, I enjoyed the hockey since I was six hours away from the Pens.
I think I can make a deduction from several threads relating to Lynchburg and LU. There is apathy in small market Lynchburg toward LU. Heck, we are treated like the "red headed step child" or the "white elephant". I think that while putting a hockey rink on campus might actually cut student attendance for the club team, it might actually generate some interest from the general public.
Believe it or not, Pittsburgh is NOT a hockey town - there is not so much of a whisper about the Pens; but youth hockey is huge here. You can hardly get any ice skating time at any of the rinks in the area because of youth hockey. Youth hockey is a huge market and with the introduction of a sizeable hockey rink on the LU campus, you can tie the community to the university. People not affiliated with LU would travel from miles around to have their kids involved in youth hockey. The parents of youth hockey members that I know are active in fund raising and really take a tremendous interests in the teams because they have so much invested. LU could really endear itself to these "hockey moms" and make a favorable impact on the community. Any thoughts?
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Post by Sly Fox on Jan 9, 2005 14:47:19 GMT -5
Noone thinks of Texas as a hockey hotbed. But there are rinks all over the place down here where it is next to impossible to get any ice time without putting a second mortgage on your house. I think the summation that a rink would create a terrific link with the Lunchburg community at large is dead on. Much the way the Vines Center has been used from time to time for things like the Globetrotters, etc.
What all this has to do with the conference affiliation, I have no idea.
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Post by eddantes on Jan 9, 2005 15:12:18 GMT -5
Conference affiliation, beats the heck out of me. But as I mentioned in my last post, there are NO hockey rinks between Charlottesville and Roanoke - meaning that one on the LU campus would have a monopoly on it.
Now, y'all may not know this, but I can tell you first hand that there is absolutely no parking on campus, and it's certainly worse in the middle of LU, where the Schilling center is. Literally, there are probably 10 spaces, and those are all taken by grounds crew. While I am in favor of converting the Schilling center into an ice rink, it's not the only cosmetic change that we're gonna have to do.
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Post by jimflamesfan on Jan 9, 2005 17:22:25 GMT -5
Well, now were way off, but continuing with the rink... The last couple of things I heard, (and I don't know how good the info is) are as follows... The hockey rink is no longer going to be at the Schilling center...it's going to be near somewhere across the street where LUPD used to be... I've heard two other things...originally I heard that they were putting the rink in the Shilling center on the back seat because they wanted a third party to finance it...later I heard that someone has donated the money and now its going to be near the old LUPD building...I actually don't have any idea where they mean. I'm also from Western PA...youth hockey was pretty big up there...I liked playing in the summer when they were to cheap to turn the dehumidifiers on or set the chillers as cold or something and it created a dense fog...that made it fun to play not being able to see the other end of the rink from your end.
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Post by PennsylvaniaGuest on Mar 9, 2005 0:07:46 GMT -5
The Colonial is the answer to Liberty's conference woes.
First of all it would give us James Madison, Will&Mary, ODU, George Mason, as well as VCU. Those 5 have potential in-state rivalries written all over them. This would also cutdown on LU's student athletes travel time. You would only have to travel to Hofstra in New York rather than hauling down to Birmingham Southern and Chuck South. Not to mention that Flames fans would have shorter distances and more opportunities to travel to support their teams.
Secondly, It would give the Lady Flames a challenge in the basketball regular season. ODU is a proven winner and nationally recognized(try to say that about any big south foe) .
Third, although the CAA does not sponsor football it does however have wrestling as one of it's 19 sports. Liberty has recently announce reinstatement of the wrestling program and needs a conference affiliation since the big south doesn't have wrestling.
More to come!
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Post by Sly Fox on Mar 9, 2005 1:03:01 GMT -5
We all agree the Colonial would be great. But they just expanded with a slew of new teams coming in next year. And we weren't invited. We'll need someone to leave to head elsewhere before we'll be let in.
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Post by KenSmith on Mar 9, 2005 9:30:44 GMT -5
Rumor going round campus is that in the early 90's Liberty actually was invited to the CAA but turned them down because Jerry , Terry , and the athletic department didn't want to raise the 1 million dollar(it's probably much more now) entry fee required at the time.
Think how much better off Liberty could be overall right now if the administration had made a good decision for a change!
Just FYI
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Post by Mark on Mar 9, 2005 9:57:46 GMT -5
CAA is in the process of adding football. They would like to offer football by 2007, and are basically trying to bring all 12 A-10 schools in (as many of them are already members of the CAA for other sports). The CAA would be a great fit for Liberty if that happens...but as was mentioned earlier, the invitation has to come first.
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Post by HarrisburgFlame on Mar 9, 2005 10:07:51 GMT -5
we have to be in an all sports conference that has football. If the goal is to be D-I in football one day that sport has to take priority. Bowl revenues and TV packages for football is where the real money is. From an identity standpoint it isn't ideal to have your teams participating in different leagues. The Southern would be the only other logical move right now. I for one like the BSC because in football you only have 4 conference games affording us the ability to do some aggressive OOC scheduling (see UConn).
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Post by KenSmith on Mar 9, 2005 11:56:59 GMT -5
Hey I would take split conference affilitations if it meant winning a I-AA football national championship just as JMU did THIS PAST SEASON! (Of course we aren't playing the caliber of football they are). Why couldn't we try to do the same? CAA/Southern(for football) or CAA/A10(football) would work for me.
It doesn't make much sense playing entirely in a piece-meal conference like the A10 with schools spread out from the coast to the midwest. Liberty doesn't have the budget currently to spend traveling long distances to play conference games. Besides our baseball and softball teams wouldn't like playing up at northern schools this time of year. (I heard St. Bonaventure up in Olean,NY is a balmy 15 degrees today. Great baseball weather!)
I'll afraid people writing the checks around Liberty are all too comfortable with the BIG SOUTH to even think of moving elsewhere.
I'm up for more suggestions. Keep up the good work!
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Post by V88 on Mar 9, 2005 14:01:39 GMT -5
A couple of points...during halftme on one of the recent Liberty basketball radio broadcasts the commissioner of the Colonial was interviewed about the league taking over A-10 football in 2007.(football would come under the Colonial banner) The commissioner was asked if the Colonial would consider Liberty in any future expansion. He wouldn't say NO, but he indicated it is very doubtful. So, at this point it looks like LU is in the Big South and will have to hope for additional programs to join the conference. Honestly, until LU wins a few conference championships, staying in the Big South is probably best. On the subject of school spirit...it needs a lot of improvement. There was a very poor showing for the first round of the Big South Tournament game among the students. I know they have to pay to get into the tournament games but it was a $3.00 ticket. I've seen what most of them spend their money on...I know they have $3.00.
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Post by PAmedic on Mar 9, 2005 15:06:23 GMT -5
maybe this is blind loyalty talking- but I just don't see why the CAA or any other conf would dismiss LU out of hand. I think we bring a LOT to the table- in terms of self initiated media outlets, etc that would be valuable to ANY small conf. Not to mention the whole Sasser cup thing- we have a very strong academic tradition going- that's GREAT for the NCAA. Lets face it, lots of D1 schools have a "religious" affiliation (BYU, ORU, SMU, TCU) why are we the pariah here? maybe 'cause we take our stand seriously and have a real set of standards/rules on campus?
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Post by V88 on Mar 9, 2005 16:56:23 GMT -5
I agree that the Colonial is the best fit for Liberty. Probably the best way for Liberty to pursue this conference is to continue scheduling W & M, JMU, Hofstra and work on games with other members;Richmond, Delaware etc...I stated this before, but the way you move into another conference is to build relationships with the current members and be willing to pay the money when the opportunity presents itself. I may be completely wrong, but I don't think the Christian/Catholic issue would be a major obstacle.
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Post by FireHouseRocks on Mar 9, 2005 20:09:01 GMT -5
As far as dominating the Big South... not every sport has (excluding W. B-ball and Track) but overall the school has. LU and Coastal have been the only schools anywhere near the top of the Commish Cup standings the last 7 years. We have won more than twice as many as Coastal and they are in consideration to move up conferences, so why not Liberty?
The Colonial is a perfect fit... great location, football to come, and much more TV exposure. (Entire Men's T-ney on espn family of networks).
A-10 would be great but out of reach right now. Southern would be OK but other than football, it doesn't have the Colonial beat.
The Colonial may take some convincing, but a new athletic director with a big name could certainly help.
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