Can Liberty Even Discuss I-A?

[TexasTerror]

Barber said Liberty is “making a huge commitment to athletics.” The Flames recently hired Virginia assistant Danny Rocco as its football coach. Work has started on a $7.5 million football building, and the Division I-AA football program is considering moving to I-A. (Charlotte Observer, 1/24/06)

Is this even realistic? Are we a few more years off from it even being a thought that be popping into someone's head? Liberty just does not seem like the kind of program (atleast football-wise) that has any business even pretending they can wrestle around with the big boys in I-A.

[Sly Fox]

Dude, lighten up on us. This is two cracks on the Flames in as many days.

We are not trying to make the step within the decade. Jerry has a vision and he's doing what he can to realize it within his lifetime. One of the reasons our school has grown so rapidly in its 35 years of existence is that he always thinks big.

Are we ready from a football standpoint to make the leap? Of course not. But if we are going to make the move up down the road then you have to begin making preparations right now.

Are we delusionally thinking we are going to be a I-A powerhouse? Please. Do we want to get to the place where we find a small conference that we can compete in and from time to time pull a BYU or TCU and sneak into the spotlight? Absolutely.

I fully realize the advantages of us moving up are no longer as obvious as they were ten years ago. But for a school like Liberty that recruits its student body on a global basis the football program could be the ultimate recruiting tool. And winning at the I-AA level doesn't serve that purpose quite as well. And we clearly aren't even accomplishing that right now (although I believe that could be changing rapidly).

Frankly I'd love to wait til we dominate the I-AA level and have a stronger infrastructure in place. But I don't think this is quite the pipedream that some believe.

Hey, those of us at Liberty are used to taking leaps of faith already. :nod:

[UNH 40]

Liberty needs to first be competitive in I-AA consistantly to even give thought at going to I-A.

[AppGuy04]

Liberty needs to first be competitive in I-AA consistantly to even give thought at going to I-A.

tell that to Falwell

[ButlerGSU]

I saw a infomercial late last night were Mr. Falwell said I could learn the bible and graduate from Liberty in less than two years and for the unbelievable price of $4,000.00 and they will give me a $300 scholarship for calling!

[TexasTerror]

Where would Liberty play?

Sun Belt or MAC?

[MarkCCU]

I saw a infomercial late last night were Mr. Falwell said I could learn the bible and graduate from Liberty in less than two years and for the unbelievable price of $4,000.00 and they will give me a $300 scholarship for calling!

I saw one them infomercials the other night

[BigApp]

Liberty needs to first be competitive in I-AA consistantly to even give thought at going to I-A.

Why so? History certainly doesn't support that statement.

[hapapp]

Why so? History certainly doesn't support that statement.

Not necessarily in the sense that they have to win a national championship but I do think they need to demonstrate they can be competitive at the current level. If they don't improve their program and draw more fans, an effort to move up would be foolish.

[Tribefan]

If FIU and FAU can do it. Then so should Liberty.

I am pretty familiar with what UConn had to do in order to make the jump. They have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into their program to build a state of the art 40,000 seat stadium (natural grass) and their two football practice facilities. I would not be surprised if Boise State and Nevada did about the same. All three of those schools had already existing fanbases. UConn didn't have a huge football following before the move but they are up 32,000 season season ticket holders and they are already talking about expanding the stadium to 50 or 60,000 seats.

Liberty will need to spend millions of dollars in private donations to match these kinds of efforts. Plus I am not sure where the fanbase is going to come from, but if Christian Rock is so successful then maybe Liberty football can be