Liberty to FBS

[whoanellie]

Liberty will announce it is moving from FCS to FBS.

Liberty had recently tried unsuccessfully to gain membership to the Sun Belt, so it is expected the Flames will initially opt to be an FBS independent during the two-year reclassification process that will begin with the 2018 season and include three FBS home games. The program will be bowl-eligible starting with the 2019 season and will be required to play at least five home FBS opponents.

Liberty's football team is coached by Turner Gill. In November, former Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw, who resigned as part of his involvement in the Baylor sexual assault scandal, was named Liberty's AD.

The school has scheduled a 5 p.m. news conference Thursday to announce its plans.

Liberty is a private, nonprofit Christian university located in Lynchburg, Virginia.

[fc4life]

Welcome to being irrelevant, Liberty.

I'm always surprised at these schools. Why?

[whoanellie]

Feb 17, 2017 9:37:42 GMT -5 fc4life said:

Welcome to being irrelevant, Liberty.

I'm always surprised at these schools. Why?

getting pounded by some elite programs and cashing their checks UVa & Va. Tech will have new cupcakes

[fc97]

Because it's money and exposure

[fc4life]

Those two do not always go together.

[Grandpa]

Would you rather be irrelevant at the FBS level or FCS?

Everyone on this board knows the feeling of the latter.

Be great to have Administrations' support and get our own program turned around.

Wasn't that long ago that ODU and App were criticized for moving up. It's turned out ok for them.

[Deleted]

Feb 19, 2017 7:29:52 GMT -5 fc97 said:

Because it's money and exposure

Where's the money coming from? They're going as an independent. No conference TV money. They could get the cup cake money as an FCS team. Boy, talking about taking the hard road...

[whoanellie]

Maybe the Sunbelt and C-USA will structure themselves again but Liberty really does not have a very stellar record in the FCS The future We lost a potential Home & Home OOC game.
Just glad We left the Big South when We did.

[elon77]

Not sure it's for the money, they have a ton of money. I think they have dreams of being the BYU of the east.

[elonpride]

In all honesty guys, I think Liberty will be fine in the long haul. It currently has a $1.8 billion endowment and says it wants to be for Baptists what BYU is to Mormons and Notre Dame is to Catholics. To put things in perspective, that endowment number is larger than BYU and roughly 6 times larger than App's.

Liberty has a ton of money, so that's not the issue.

The hiring of the former Baylor AD is extremely controversial. Judging by the recent surfacing of text messages from the former Baylor head coach, I wouldn't be surprised to see more horrendous stuff surface over the next year. Could be wrong, but it sure seems that may be the way things are going.