Since we probably won't play Coastal much anymore, who becomes Liberty's biggest rival?

I don't think Coastal stops being a rival. I think we'll continue to play them in all our sports since we'll want to keep a good relationship with them to continue making in-roads with the Sun Belt and we both bring a good atmosphere to our competitions which brings money and attention for our schools. CCU may not be our number one rival, but we'll still have animosity.

James Madison is still our "big brother" who is pretty close by so we'll continue to hate them.

If Richmond scheduled us in football, we could have a pretty good rivalry which intensifies with Rocco as their coach.

Longwood doesn't have a football team, and neither does any other Big South Virginia school so we are out of luck there. If a school doesn't play football, it is hard to consider them a real rival.

Charleston Southern has recently given us some upsets when we were favored in football and seem to be the big challenger to us for the Big South football championship. I remember they were undefeated or something about 8 years ago and we beat them in Lynchburg. Presbyterian beat us which cost us playoffs the year we were 10-2 and the Big South didn't get an auto-bid. Gardner-Webb is "pesky."

Based on a "hatred scale," I would say our biggest rival is James Madison now that Coastal is going to the Sun Belt.

I tend to agree about JMU from our perspective. But I don't think JMU views us as a rival at all. It'd help if we could schedule them in more sports more often.
For me, true rivals are teams that consider each other rivals, re: Louisville/Kentucky, UNC/Duke, Alabama/Auburn, Harvard/Yale, USC/Notre Dame, etc. However, I do see that those I have listed have a couple things in common... A long history of playing each other or being in the same state.
Currently, I'd say Liberty's biggest football rival is Chuck So. (only because they are good and Coastal has left us behind) In basketball I might place Longwood at the top. (due to proximity and the fact that we couldn't win at their place)

True rivalries have always been tough for us to develop because we don't share many attributes with other schools. Traditionally Radford was our hoops rival and even VMI was a bit of a rival in football but neither are today. Longwood will never be our rival. Ever.

I look forward to developing new rivalries when our number is finally called up to FBS.

(03-28-2016 05:17 PM)army56mike Wrote:  But I don't think JMU views us as a rival at all.

I am not sure about that. They (their fans/alumni) may not say it out loud but if you asked them who they would least like to lose a game to, I bet many of them would say us. They won't acknowledge us as being on their level but they sure do care about what we are doing. It's completely the big brother (JMU) - little brother (Liberty) rivalry and it is typically the big brother who denies the rivalry even when everyone else says it is.

I'd like to begin scheduling GCU on a regular basis. Check that... if they gain a traditional university status, then I'd want to regularly play them. Some other schools I'd like to play regularly are Baylor, SMU, Houston Baptist, Abilene Christian, Incarnate Word, BYU, Boston College, Duke, Notre Dame.

HBU's head football coach played quarterback in college for the Flames and was an assistant under Coach Gill at Kansas. I am shocked we haven't gotten them on our schedule by now.

I would say you guys should try Charleston Southern. They are a Christian university and will be the toughest football opponent. Would boost both schools to have another rival. They view the Citadel as their "JMU".

You know how I mentioned playing GCU as a rival. They scored a home game with my other favorite team University of Louisville. How'd that happen? When's the last time we had a top 10-25 team come to the Vines Center to play us?

Maybe a cross country rivalry with GCU might be a good thing. It seems like they have that program going in the right direction. It would give us some exposure out west.

In as many sports as possible I say we start scheduling Notre Dame and BYU as often as possible, even if it means making trips to play them at their place with no return trips promised. It has to start somewhere and we should get it going.