Experiment - How long until the Sun Belt faithful (as I can promise you no Liberty fan will) steer this conversation towards religious, political, or philosophical ballyhoo, and ultimately the closing of said conversation by a Sun Belt Forum moderator?

Now gentlemen, let us talk budgets, and shall we have an objective conversation for once without the ache and pain of religious fervor?


Total Athletic Department Expenditures Last Year -

1. WKU - 25.7 million
2. Texas State - 25.5 million
3. Georgia State - 22.7 million
4. South Alabama - 17.7 million
5. Troy - 16.7 million
6. Lafayette - 15.3 million
7. Arkansas St. - 13.2 million
8. Monroe - 9.4 million
9. Arlington - 9.2 millioni
10. UALR - 8.6 million

The top three schools in total football expenditures -

1. South Alabama - 6.9 million
2. Lafayette - 5.8 million
3. WKU - 5.8 million


Liberty spent the following last year -

30.2 million total, and 8.4 million on football, respectively.

Now looking at those facts objectively, let us have intelligent debate and candid conversation about the possibility of Liberty being competitive right away in Olympic Sports, and eventually (and that is a big keyword, eventually, as I know some people on here will try to spin it as right away) being able to compete near the top of the conference in football as well. I referenced Liberty's tennis program handling WKU in a previous thread as an example, and upon further review it looks like our men's golf team had a February win over WKU at an invite in California. As I and several other posters have mentioned, Liberty would be competitive right away in the Olympic Sports, and while obviously it is football that drives realignment, bringing an upgrade to the SBC's Olympic Sports is never a bad idea for the conference.

Now, let us talk football. As we all are involved in college athletics, we know that football drives conference realignment...but what drives football? Without a commitment from the athletic department (and ultimately the highest levels of university administration) from a mostly financial perspective, football rarely thrives at the FBS levels. One needs to feed the beast, so to speak, and you will find throughout the highest levels of college football that the schools who spend the most money on their football programs also tend to have the best programs from a competitive standpoint. In layman's terms, you need to spend money on football in order to have a good football program. As for the rules, there are always exceptions to the rule, but for the most part it holds true.


To summarize -

Liberty has made a staggering commitment to athletics, and the following list is just the beginning -

1. Recent additions to football, with a second major upgrade planned upon FBS invitation
2. Recent addition of a state of the art practice basketball facility
3. A new 8.5 million dollar baseball stadium
4. Numerous upgrades to Olympic Sport facilities
5. Every program is fully funded with the NCAA maximum number of scholarships
6. No Title IX or APR issues
7. Every program is maxed out with the NCAA maximum amount of coaches
8. We staff our athletic department very well, and I'll list three comparisons to WKU as they have the largest budget in the SBC.

A. WKU employs 5 full time people in their sports information department, Liberty employs 5 as well
B. WKU employs 7 full time athletic trainers, Liberty employs 10.
C. WKU employs 5 full time strength and conditioning coaches, while Liberty employs 6.


9. Commitment to further increase the budget upon FBS invite. We have completed an FBS feasibility study, and our Chancellor is ready to increase the budget for all sports to "FBS Level" upon our arrival.
10. Too many other commitments to list.




Now, let us debate objectively gentlemen.