Liberty U's unusual move to FBS

Infield Infidel

teaching korea american
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
11,463
Meeting Place, Canada
Sort of under the radar but Liberty announced on Feb 16 that they are moving up to FBS for 2018. There are a few unusual things about this move

1. Their AD is Ian McCaw, who left Baylor last year and was in charge during all the sexual assault allegations. He's also being sued by at least one victim. They hired him in November, so he had a whopping 5 months between jobs. I mean, how did this guy even get another job that has anything to do with a university? Coincidentally Liberty first game this year is at Baylor

2. They are moving up as an independent. They got a waiver from the NCAA rule that teams can only move up with a conference invite. Liberty has been asking C-USA and the SunBelt for an invite for 5 years and both have said, thanks, but no thanks. So they filed for a waiver to move up as independent, something no school has done since the rule was passed about ten years ago. This rule exists largely because FAMU had an aborted move to FBS, and NCAA and the conferences didn't want a repeat of that. The last schools to move up without an invite were FIU and FAU in 2005, but they each were in talks with SunBelt in their transition period and both got offers after their debut season to join the SunBelt. The last school to totally move up to FBS/I-A as independent without talks or an invite was UCF in 1995 1996 (edit). They joined the MAC in 2000. The waiver sets an interesting precedent for other programs that could make the jump, say James Madison, North Dakota St, that may have been waiting for conference invites (JMU is definitely waiting for a C-USA invite, they turned down SunBelt).

3. Liberty isn't that good. They have one playoff appearance and a few conference titles in a league with 6 teams. They are 4-21 vs FBS schools, wins over Eastern Michigan, Ball St, Georgia St, Appalachian St.

4. The move is for 2018. Usually schools take a couple seasons to make the transition and ramp up scholarships. Liberty has 1 game scheduled for 2018. Teams normally finalize their schedules by the end of the February prior to the season, so they'll need to schedule 10 or 11 more games by this time next year, including at least 5 home games, 3 of which must be FBS (unless they get another waiver I guess). Who's visiting Liberty? Will they have to pay through the nose to get teams to visit? Fellow independents UMass and New Mexico St might do home and homes I guess.

5. A lot of Liberty's funding comes from 97,000 online students, most of whom don't graduate but do get federal financial aid. Liberty gets the most financial aid in Virginia, and is near the top nationally. The school's graduation rate is 48% including 15,000 on-campus and 97,000 online. If there are changes to law regarding online schools, that would impact their revenue.

6. Big South said that Liberty filed a waiver to keep its other teams in the conference, they'll decide on that in April.
 
Last edited: