CSNbbs

I posted this on A Sea of Red but thought I'd share here as well.

PilotOnline.com Wrote:C-USA rejected Liberty University's generous offer to join the league ... but the Flames ended up as the big winners
Sep 7, 2017


Liberty's football stadium with the new, $29.1 million indoor workout facility to the left and a $3 million out track to the right and the school's new $20 million baseball stadium at the bottom right.
Steve Helber | AP Photo

By Harry Minium
The Virginian-Pilot
harry.minium@pilotonline.com

LYNCHBURG Since Liberty University announced in 2012 its plan to move to the Football Bowl Subdivision, officials worked diligently to find a conference, any conference, willing to accept the Flames.

The NCAA requires a Football Championship Subdivision school to join an FBS league to move . Liberty officials intensely lobbied the two leagues that made geographic sense – Conference USA and the Sun Belt – with no luck.

Liberty even offered to open its checkbook. Sources told me that in 2016, Liberty offered Conference USA millions of dollars more than the usual $2 million admission fee for an invitation.

This little nugget seems over the top but in line with rumors that were floating around a year or so ago ...

Quote:How many millions more? One source pegged the offer at $24 million. The offer coincidentally came at about the same time C-USA was learning its TV revenue would soon crater, going from paying $1.1 million per school annually to about $200,000.

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Thanks for posting. IND for FB is really a nice fit. I'm hoping there can be more P5 games scheduled in the next 10-20 years. Imagine a schedule with 7-8 P5 games and 4-5 G5 games. Current schedules look good for the next 5-ish years. The future is very bright!

As with the Sun Belt and any other conference, it was their loss. Thanks for posting! If Liberty won't be in a power conference, then I would like them to be independent until further notice. We seem to have no trouble getting games and a decent number of P5 schools to come to Lynchburg. I have the confidence of our football program and athletic department to continue the hot streak that we are on.

I think Liberty offered that $$$ not as an attempt to join CUSA, but rather an attempt to join FBS. You probably made a similar offer to the SBC.

I think ya'll would have left CUSA rather quickly for independence after transitioning.

Thanks for Posting Sly...

The Baylor win may have turned a lot more heads than we truly recognize. I'm not at all saddened C-USA and or SB turned us down. Because so, we are free to do as we please.

Soooo....

How much would Liberty have offered the AAC? Inquiring minds...

And congrats on the Baylor win!

My guess is a substantial sum. We probably would still pony up for the AAC if the opportunity loomed.

(09-08-2017 12:55 PM)HuskyU Wrote: [ -> ]Soooo....

How much would Liberty have offered the AAC? Inquiring minds...

And congrats on the Baylor win!

P6 money.

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I love what I see of Independence so far. However, I also will miss playing for a conference championship and the reward that comes with it.

The American would be hard to turn down if they were interested but we'd get less P5 schools to play if we joined a G5 conference. At best we would have to load all four non-conference games against P5 schools, and at most half would be at home. That would be a brutal schedule and make it harder to be bowl eligible. The biggest reason, in my mind, for joining a G5 conference at this time is to move the non-football sports into a better conference. However, I think it would be better to just improve our non-football sports to a level where better conferences that don't have football would want us.

2025* is the first year I could see us in a new conference. An announcement for joining could come before that date but it would be for starting that fall. We are going to be an independent in football for quite awhile and I am perfectly fine with that situation.

* End of Big XII Grant of Rights

I would rather Jerry not say anything at all. What is he hoping to achieve with that tweet? Not really helping Liberty and just sounds bitter while burning just about any bridge remaining.

Agreed

Wow, that wasn't politically correct. Go Jerry!

(09-09-2017 08:13 PM)GE and MTS Wrote: [ -> ]I would rather Jerry not say anything at all. What is he hoping to achieve with that tweet? Not really helping Liberty and just sounds bitter while burning just about any bridge remaining.

Here's the irony. Painting a group with a broad brush and calling them bigoted is in itself a form of bigotry.

(09-10-2017 11:28 AM)Old Dominion Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2017 08:13 PM)GE and MTS Wrote: [ -> ]I would rather Jerry not say anything at all. What is he hoping to achieve with that tweet? Not really helping and just sounds bitter while burning just about any bridge remaining.

Here's the irony. Painting a group with a broad brush and calling them bigoted is in itself a form of bigotry.

He specified a "few" . From what I hear ODU was NOT one of them. I hear ODU would jump at an opportunity to land in a realigned AAC East along with JMU, LU, ECU, NAVY, ARMY.

Next realignment we'll have a P4 and G6. Hang on!

What is better?
- Independence: with the ability to control your own schedule.
- Conference affiliation: with the ability to compete for more championships and greater bowl access.

It's tough to say. I like what I've seen of independence so far. But being in a good conference situation eases scheduling difficulties and has it's own positives.

If any conference asked us to join I think we would.

We have until 2022-25 to prove ourselves. Then hang on.

(09-11-2017 02:18 AM)army56mike Wrote: [ -> ]What is better?
- Independence: with the ability to control your own schedule.
- Conference affiliation: with the ability to compete for more championships and greater bowl access.

It's tough to say. I like what I've seen of independence so far. But being in a good conference situation eases scheduling difficulties and has it's own positives.

If any conference asked us to join I think we would.

Independence unless the AAC or a P5 conference came calling. Imagine having football games with Houston, UCF and Cincinnati. Then think about the Basketball with UCONN, SMU and Cincinnati. Throw in ECU for baseball and that's some compelling reasons to join the AAC.