Liberty Lining Them Up

[NoLongerLurking]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0YLuFZcOe4

[BUTCH1991]

Old Dominion is getting 1.3 million

[WVAPPeer]

Guess it pays to be that connected to God ---

[CVAPP]

Guess it pays to be that connected to God ---

It pays to get on their payroll of FBS teams they need to buy a game from, as the evidence indicates. They will succeed until their cash cow goes dry. I don't see their cash cow (online degrees) going dry anytime soon. This statement is not meanty o disparage their business model in any way. They have far more credibility than their competition in the realm of online degrees.

[HkyMtneer]

A couple interesting tidbits in a new piece in the Lynchburg newspaper about the impacts of the pending FBS move in regards to recruiting for Liberty. One was from current-soon-to-be-ex conference mate New Mexico State's head coach:

“I do believe there’s a little bit more of an attraction when you are an independent, when you can sell a kid that, ‘Hey, we can go play anybody, anytime, anywhere,’” New Mexico State coach Doug Martin said.

Martin’s team is in its last season as an associate member of the Sun Belt and will be an independent beginning in 2018. “To be honest, going into the Sun Belt never really impacted our recruiting very much. Most kids don’t even know who is in the Sun Belt … I think we are seeing a better impact from the independent look than we did in the conference.”

Another quote from Paul Rutigliano (Son of Sam) on the Liberty staff:

“Obviously the stakes are higher,” said Paul Rutigliano, Liberty’s assistant athletics director for football administration and the recruiting coordinator. “You’re recruiting a different type of kid than at the FCS level. You’re going to go out now and you’re going to be competing for kids looking at Virginia Tech or Virginia or Old Dominion, App State, Sun Belt-type kids.

“We have to get them on our campus sooner, because I think if we wait to the end just for official visits, you’re going to be left out.”

The whole article can be found here:

http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/l ... 14ad5.html

[bcoach]

I think there is probably something to be said for the Liberty style of independent. When they can't get a game another way they can buy it. So yes they will get some high profile games that will attract some recruits. As far as Martin goes I think his statement is sour grapes and I don't think he has a tenth of the money Liberty has to go out and buy games.

[Gonzo]

Dude....

https://forums.aseaofred.com/forums/

[NoLongerLurking]

It's weird to want a complete season of games where you're the cupcake.

[ASUPATCH]

A diploma mill buying games. No conference wants them as the sun belt even passed. Like the rich kid that clearly doesnt have skill to play but still gets to play cause daddy donates to the program. Nothing the see here. Just a "University" wasting a ton of money, none of which benefits the students. And to HkyMtn who went(or wife went) to Liberty saying more people know of Liberty, get the heck out of here. I live 2 time zones away in Colorado and no one has ever heard of the place. Yet they all know where they were when we beat Michigan. Went to Vegas and a bouncer comment on my App polo. Wear a Liberty LU and you get, Lehigh, Lafayette, not Liberty. Even more difficult, ask any one outside of the mid Atlantic to come up with the team name. Not only will they not come up with the flames, chuckles will commence.

[HkyMtneer]

Apparently, Liberty offered C-USA $24 million for admission to the conference (prior to deciding to go it alone and having their waiver granted) yet were still spurned. The normal buy-in to the conference has traditionally been $2 mil. Curious if LU officially made an offer to the Belt, and if so, what was that #.

https://pilotonline.com/sports/columnis ... 7fa70.html

[hapapp]

To me, this is demonstration why the Belt should not take Liberty. I can think of no other G5 program that has the resources available that LU has its disposal. There are few FBS schools that can match what Liberty spends on facilities and their programs. It's clear if any program can make it as an indy, they can.

[MtnMan09]

I just wanted to say its bizarre to me that this thread was attacked. Im with HkyMtnr. I could care less about the Traveling Falwells and their magic band, but the original poster dished out something that was otherwise noteworthy for this board. If UNCC inked a deal with Duke, there would be a post and discussion about it. Why was this any different? Attacking the post as anything else is what sends us into the realm of politics and brings out trolls from both sides.

[Yosef84]

I hold no ill will towards Liberty. I'm not a fan of theirs (by a long shot) but don't quite understand the level of "hate" directed at anything Liberty related. That being said, I have to agree with Happapp's comment. Liberty wasn't a good fit for the Sun Belt because they simply are not a "peer" institution. I'm not talking about them being competitive. I think they will manage to build a competitive program, although I am not particularly worried about them out-performing App. The problem is that they have a totally different set of tools at their disposal. Their deep pockets could create an "arms race" in which we aren't built to compete.

Best of luck to Liberty. I fully expect to see them on our schedule at some point. Frankly, I wish we were playing them instead of Savannah State this weekend. They have the deep pockets to survive as Independents, so things might have worked out best for all involved.