Thinking about Liberty (and BYU)

[appgrad95&97]

Would being independent give us a shot at a "better" schedule? To be clear I'm not suggesting we leave the Belt, just a question.

[Yosef84]

I don't see any up-side for App going independent. Personally, I think it would destroy our athletics programs. The only programs able to make a serious go at "independent" status are those with very deep pockets.

[AppStateNews]

Not a chance. We barely have enough funding to survive in a conference. No way we can survive as an independent.

[NoLongerLurking]

LU pays every school willing hundreds of thousands of degree-milled dollars to play them at home. We can't afford ice or coaches.

[ah59396]

Exclusive of the costs I also find the competition of being in a conference exciting. Let’s face it, 999/1000 times App State isn’t going to win the national championship. But we always have a shot at the conference championship.

Conference play also helps build rivalries. Don’t think for a second UL isn’t chomping at the bit to play us this year when they think we are vulnerable. That wouldn’t happen without us sharing a conference.

[appchicago]

The three of the four independent schools that have the best schedules—ND, BYU, and Liberty—also happen to have the backing of massive religious organizations. That can sure help. The fourth indy with a schedule worth a damn is Army—and once again, it helps to have the backing of a massive organization and some built-in name recognition.

(And notably, ND isn’t independent this year.)

UMass and New Mexico State are examples of the other side of the coin. Their schedules aren’t great and their results are worse. There’s no reason to think we wouldn’t end up in that category, considering we don’t have massive piles of cash to burn.

[moonshine]

Would being independent give us a shot at a "better" schedule? To be clear I'm not suggesting we leave the Belt, just a question.

If you take money out of the equation (and Covid), the simple answer is yes. If App was able to pay teams to fill out the schedule, we could have something similar to Liberty with 3-4 A5 teams, 6-8 G5 and 1 FCS. I'm just pulling regional teams out of a hat but something along the lines of:

ETSU (H-FCS--Socon)
Wake (H-A5--ACC)
ECU (A-G5--AAC)
Marshall (H-G5--CUSA)
UGA (A-A5--SEC)
UNCC (A-G5--CUSA)
GS (H-G5--SB)
NCST (H-A5--ACC)
UVA (A-A5--ACC)
CCU (H-G5--SB)
GaST (A-G5--SB)
Troy (A-G5--SB)

In this hypothetical scenario, teams visiting the Rock would be: ETSU, Wake, Marshall, NCST, GS & CCU. Can you imagine the ticket sales? All the away games would be drivable for fans: ECU, UGA, UNCC, UVA, GaST & Troy. Many of us would probably need a 2nd job to be able to afford to attend all the games!

The biggest issues with being independent, outside of money, is lack of conference championships, bowl tie-ins and access to CFP money but if Gillin could build a schedule similar to the one above on a regular basis, I'd say that is a much better schedule from a competition and fan interest standpoint.