At Liberty the understanding has been that we can stay in the Big South for everything but football until we are no longer seen as asset to the league. In other words, if the Big South is able to add a school that assures football maintaining proper numbers then we could be bounced over to the A-Sun. Technically Liberty is an associate member starting 2018-2019 school year even though all sports are playing in the league outside of football.

Honestly I will be surprised if Howard is not in the fold soon. It makes sense on multiple fronts and would be a quality add. As a Liberty fan, I would have loved to have seen Hampton & Howard in the league years ago. But the timing is better now.

(11-16-2017 08:13 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  As it is, schools at d2 level got caught doing FCOAs type deals with their athletes. Arkansas Tech got caught doing it in their best sports. If D2 schools wants to spend money for that? Let me join D1.

I really don't like repeating myself. ATU athletes had their housing deposits paid for or waived, it's a big stretch to call that FCOA.

(11-17-2017 06:13 AM)3BNole Wrote:  Valdosta State is not moving up. As much as I would like them to because there'd be another local D1 team to see, it's not happening. My neighbor is the athletic director's brother, so I am quite connected to these things. They had discussions a couple years ago but decided that it was just far too expensive. If something ever changes, I'll let you know.

Fwiw, I go to 1-2 of their football games each year, and despite having a good team I can tell you that they only draw about 1,000 fans even to big games. High school football in South Georgia rulls the roost.

Valdosta’s biggest crowd this year was 5,921 (in a 11,249 seat stadium). Most of the crowds were in the 4-5K range. That’s bigger than say a PC, but still in the lower part of FCS attendance.

(11-17-2017 10:02 AM)SlyFox Wrote:  At Liberty the understanding has been that we can stay in the Big South for everything but football until we are no longer seen as asset to the league. In other words, if the Big South is able to add a school that assures football maintaining proper numbers then we could be bounced over to the A-Sun. Technically Liberty is an associate member starting 2018-2019 school year even though all sports are playing in the league outside of football.

Honestly I will be surprised if Howard is not in the fold soon. It makes sense on multiple fronts and would be a quality add. As a Liberty fan, I would have loved to have seen Hampton & Howard in the league years ago. But the timing is better now.

I would suspect if anyone else drops football, or moves it to the Pioneer League, then Howard gets the call and Liberty is sent packing.