(04-07-2015 10:14 PM)Libertygrad01 Wrote: I've brought this up before and got hammered of FF. Liberty will not sit back year after year with their hands tied with absolutely no path to FBS. I'm not certain a lawsuit would ever happen b/c frankly the NCAA would lose. An antitrust suit would show that the NCAA doesn't have a level playing field and a team that meets all the requirements have no way to advance.
The question is would Liberty move up if it meant going indy? The scheduling would be horrendous late in the season when other teams are playing conference games. Would the Big South allow Liberty to keep the other sports in the league?
LG, FF may have hammered you there, here others see including myself, the threat of litigation, as a last resort, the very big stick that Liberty has. It was a point I made 5 years ago when I joined here, and I received my first reputation points. I agree 100%.
Now the hope is an invite comes. It's the easiest path for LU. But if not, in a strange twist, the removal of the 12 team championship rule may strengthen LU's position, making it even harder for a team meeting the regs to get an invite. The weak link is that the NCAA sets the guidelines but the conferences make the invites.
This is the ultimate good ole boy network where first everyone positions themselves to receive their part of the pie, or revenue. That's mostly TV contacts. Rest assured that all sport networks, and the revenue they generate, are involved in these invites to a great degree. Then the administration and prez pontificate about academic standards and hide behind their self important standards, when it's all about the money. LU's invite is based mostly on money. There is no doubt that if the school had been more successful in football in the past, we would have been FBS long ago, even with all our baggage and past and current missteps. One year making the FCS playoff is hardly a claim of consistency. App St, JMU, GaSo all have been good and all have won FCS championships. GaSt is the power of the Atlanta market only as that is a train wreck of a program in FB.
Which brings us back to our position today. If there is one point that folks on this board don't clearly see, it's the desire for the school to achieve FBS. Those that slam us down, time and again, really have no conception of the invested interest LU has, and the extent LU will go to, to be treated fairly to be FBS. Talk about the mouse that roared, if years go by and we're still having this dialogue, rest assured the NCAA will cower when they get a whiff that LU is considering litigation. They will relent and allow LU to be indy.
When I've posted the indy route in the past, the naysayers comes out and state it is against the current rules. If there is a challenge, many of the rules will be rewritten. There is a thread on the SBC board now commenting on how few people outside of VA even know who Liberty is. If LU goes the litigation route, lots of people will know about Liberty. As the Cruz announcement at LU had news legs for about 4 days, an NCAA suit will be ongoing for months and maybe years. Sportscenter and ESPN will report it, and repeat report it and every sports outlet will gobble it up. It will be a circus of activity of talking heads stating their position. It will be big news.
Let's hope cool heads and wisdom prevails and that the NCAA changes the rules, and the conferences and schools get their money. If not, they'll lose and LU will be indy and we'll stuggle with scheduling initially, until a fair system is in place. And LU is in a conference.
