Does Liberty U. really have any peers? Are there any other truly Christian universities in the nation our size? I think we are alone in this. I know there are several small universities that sill hold strongly to Christian commitment and values in education and athletics.
Now, I know there are schools that may have started out Christian, have a Christian theme in their name (SMU, TCU), or are funded or are backed in some sort by churches, but have long sine left their Christian values and roots behind.
How about Oral Roberts? I'm not sure how big they are. They're several high quality Christian colleges, such as Wheaton and Cedarville, but athletically we're not peers.
ORU is only 2,700 students, so not a good comparison (our freshman class is bigger than that).
Two schools come to mind:
1. Grand Canyon University (in Phoenix) has almost the exact enrollment as LU and is in the WAC.
2. Baylor University is only a couple thousand bigger than LU and still has some Southern Baptist affiliation and is where LU hopes to be someday athletically (FBS in a major conference, Big 12).
(01-01-2016 06:59 PM)Cider Jim Wrote: [ -> ]ORU is only 2,700 students, so not a good comparison (our freshman class is bigger than that).
Two schools come to mind:
1. Grand Canyon University (in Phoenix) has almost the exact enrollment as LU and is in the WAC.
2. Baylor University is only a couple thousand bigger than LU and still has some Southern Baptist affiliation and is where LU hopes to be someday athletically (FBS in a major conference, Big 12).
Since GCU is a for-profit we really don't want to be their peers. Like it or hate it all for-profits have a stigma to them. And since they lack FB how can they be peers?
(01-01-2016 08:58 PM)Curtisc83 Wrote: [ -> ] (01-01-2016 06:59 PM)Cider Jim Wrote: [ -> ]ORU is only 2,700 students, so not a good comparison (our freshman class is bigger than that).
Two schools come to mind:
1. Grand Canyon University (in Phoenix) has almost the exact enrollment as LU and is in the WAC.
2. Baylor University is only a couple thousand bigger than LU and still has some Southern Baptist affiliation and is where LU hopes to be someday athletically (FBS in a major conference, Big 12).
Since GCU is a for-profit we really don't want to be their peers. Like it or hate it all for-profits have a stigma to them. And since they lack FB how can they be peers?
Interesting. I thought Baylor was a fully secular school now, that just got some support money from the church. I could be wrong though. I'm not really familiar with the school. It does seem to have a really pretty campus.
Oral Roberts seems to be a pretty good comparison. They are smaller, but the mission is probably close as well as the athletics and level of competition.
Baylor and BYU are probably the most comparable to us in size, offerings, and motivations. ORU is close, but I don' think they offer football.
Word around campus at the start of my LU career (1994) was that Baylor had just relaxed some of the rules to include allowing dancing and that the Vines Center was modeled after their basketball arena.
I know that BYU isn't considered Christian by most conservative Christian standards, but they are us for the mormans with a significant head start and more success than us.
As far as 1-AA goes and to name a few; Samford, Chuck South, GWebb, and Campbell are all Christian universities as well. I consider them peers, but they are all content at the 1-AA level and I don't think they're out to rival Notre Dame, BYU, and Baylor.
GWebb and Chuck South are both not much older than LU. GWebb has a beautiful and well planned out campus. Chuck South's campus looks like it was an abandoned military installation.
(01-02-2016 07:22 PM)LUOrange Wrote: [ -> ]As far as 1-AA goes and to name a few; Samford, Chuck South, GWebb, and Campbell are all Christian universities as well.
Hmm. I wasn't really familiar with those schools mission and climate. I didn't realize they were that similar to LU.
Cider Jim know what he is talking about in regard to peer institutions. Baylor, ORU and BYU would be my first to come to mind as well.
Actually Grand Canyon is going through the process to become non-profit. Once that occurs, they would most certaoinly be considered a peer.
That'd be cool. We could have a East vs. West rivalry with GCU.