{"id":9280,"date":"2017-02-17T06:45:31","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T11:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9280"},"modified":"2017-02-17T09:05:58","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T14:05:58","slug":"and-now-liberty-is-fbs-bound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9280","title":{"rendered":"And Now Liberty is FBS Bound"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">PRESS RELEASE: NCAA Approves Liberty&#8217;s Waiver Request for FBS Reclassification Process<\/p>\n<p>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yD3C3VvRN9\">https:\/\/t.co\/yD3C3VvRN9<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GoFlames?src=hash\">#GoFlames<\/a> ???????? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AJyrXLA6o2\">pic.twitter.com\/AJyrXLA6o2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Liberty Flames (@libertyflames) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/libertyflames\/status\/832342129917689856\">February 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Earlier this afternoon, Liberty University, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/18029536\/baylor-ex-coach-art-briles-ad-ian-mccaw-failed-report-allegations-2012-sexual-assault\">the school that hired the ex-Baylor AD Ian McCaw who failed to report an allegation of a 2012 sexual assault involving five football players<\/a>, announced its intention to move its football program to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The timing was shocking, but it was no secret the school had its sights set on making the move eventually. Liberty University, <a href=\"http:\/\/deadspin.com\/former-baylor-ad-reportedly-asked-for-immunity-for-foot-1788513277\">the school that hired the ex-Baylor AD Ian McCaw who reportedly asked for immunity for football players under investigation for sexual assault<\/a>, had made a number of public overtures to join FBS conferences. After the school was repeatedly denied, its only option appeared to be getting a waiver from the NCAA to make the jump without an invitation from a conference. The NCAA granted that waiver and now the move to FBS is in the works.<\/p>\n<p>There are a few different ways for the JMU faithful to react to this news. We&#8217;re guessing the &#8220;FBS or Bust&#8221; crew will probably lose their minds and double-down on the sky is falling, Fire Bourne!, Fire Alger! rhetoric that was temporarily put on the back burner during the run to Frisco. The &#8220;Pro FCS&#8221; folks will probably laugh this off and immediately point out the risk of making the leap without any conference affiliation. And the &#8220;Whatever. I&#8217;m Rootin Regardless&#8221; folks probably have better things to do than read this nonsense. We&#8217;re not going to tell you how to feel. We&#8217;re not going to light our pitchforks and protest on the quad. And we&#8217;re not going to wrap you in a blanket and tell you that everything is going to be just fine. Because we don&#8217;t really know. And it&#8217;s all up to you to decide.<\/p>\n<p>We will point out a few facts though. First off,\u00a0Liberty University, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/early-lead\/wp\/2016\/11\/28\/baylor-ad-who-resigned-amid-sexual-assault-scandal-is-hired-by-liberty\/?utm_term=.f8f94dff5355\">the school that hired the ex-Baylor AD Ian McCaw who allegedly helped suppress up to 52 cases of sexual assault by football players<\/a>, is\u00a0in a very different situation than JMU.\u00a0While we all love JMU, it&#8217;s not a school with deep pockets. Television contracts for the non-P5 FBS are nowhere near as lucrative as they once were. If JMU were to make a similar move to FBS as an independent, it would need to negotiate its own television deal. BYU and Notre Dame have done that, but it would be tough for an FBS newbie.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, if JMU were to move up as an independent, it would lack the bowl tie-ins or revenue guarantees that conference members get. Mind you, that doesn&#8217;t mean that such a move would be a guaranteed disaster. It would be a substantial risk though, especially if the school didn&#8217;t have enough money to sustain itself while it worked toward building the revenue streams required to field a competitive team.<\/p>\n<p>Liberty University, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-sports\/story\/_\/id\/18157726\/ian-mccaw-former-baylor-bears-athletic-director-hired-same-post-liberty\">the school that hired the ex-Baylor AD Ian McCaw who failed to report allegations of sexual assault by football players to Baylor&#8217;s judicial affairs or anyone outside of athletics<\/a>, on the other hand has very deep pockets. Enough money in fact that it could afford to pay teams to fill its schedule. And it has its own television network, so it wouldn&#8217;t need to negotiate broadcast rights. And it has a vastly different mission, which is to become the evangelical Christian version of what BYU is to Mormans and Notre Dame is to Catholics. This means that going it at alone as an FBS independent actually fits the schools vision for itself. JMU&#8217;s vision is different. JMU wants to be a part of a conference of peers and has stated it will make a move if an opportunity to join a conference that fits the school comes about.<\/p>\n<p>Again, we&#8217;re not going to tell you if this is good or bad for JMU. We&#8217;re no different than anyone else, in that we have no idea what the future holds. It&#8217;s undeniable though, that JMU does not have the resources of BYU, Notre Dame, or even Liberty University, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2017\/02\/08\/514172776\/baylor-sanctioned-by-big-12-after-new-revelations-about-football-team-controvers\">the school that hired the ex-Baylor AD Ian McCaw who presided over a football program accused of covering up over 50 instances of rape, perpetrated by as many as 31 players<\/a>. This very well might be a good move for the folks down in Lynchburg. But that doesn&#8217;t mean the exact same move is right for JMU right now. But maybe in a few years, we&#8217;ll look back fondly on this move and view it as the thing that enabled JMU to join the always dreamed about hypothetical East Coast conference.<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D9280&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PRESS RELEASE: NCAA Approves Liberty&#8217;s Waiver Request for FBS Reclassification Process Read: https:\/\/t.co\/yD3C3VvRN9 #GoFlames ???????? pic.twitter.com\/AJyrXLA6o2 \u2014 Liberty Flames (@libertyflames) February 16, 2017 Earlier this afternoon, Liberty University, the school that hired the ex-Baylor AD Ian McCaw who failed to report an allegation of a 2012 sexual assault involving five football players, announced its intention [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10476,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10476","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":0},"title":"Guest Post: JMU Football is the Best in the State of Virginia","date":"September 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Deacon Danny won last week's prediction contest by coming closest to the 51-0 final score in JMU's big win over William & Mary. Here he makes the case for JMU being the best team in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Enjoy! JMU is in a golden and truly blessed era of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/rootin-t-shirt.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6613,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6613","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":1},"title":"No More MACtion for UMass","date":"March 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we learned that UMass and the MAC are parting ways after 2015. UMass has played FBS football in the MAC for the past two years. In that time, the Minutemen compiled a record of 2-22, while playing home games 90 miles away in Foxborough. The school\u00a0remained a member of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"yFOOTBALL1dog-articleLarge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/yFOOTBALL1dog-articleLarge.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4589,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=4589","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":2},"title":"Guest Blogger: Increasing Student Interest in JMU Football","date":"October 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"JMUSB Reader Devon came closest to predicting the final score of JMU's win over Georgia State. As a result he is our guest blogger for the week. Here are his ideas for rallying student support for JMU football. First of all, I would like to thank Rob and Todd for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_6997-1024x682.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9287,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9287","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":3},"title":"Mike Houston Announces JMU Football Spring Game Details","date":"February 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Mike Houston was a special guest today at the O'Neill's Grill Fan & Press Luncheon. He was there to talk about the Dukes' Spring Football plans and he dropped a few nuggets in the process. First of all, the team's Spring Game will take place on April 8 in Bridgeforth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"houston gatorade","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/5871777dd91de.image_-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9858,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9858","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":4},"title":"Guest Post: What Can We Learn from Other FBS Jumpers?","date":"October 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Shrowder won last week's prediction contest. Here he takes a look at a former FCS school that recently made the jump to FBS and wonders if it was worth it.\u00a0 We\u2019re in the middle of one of the best seasons in JMU football history. The Dukes are 7-0, have the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/041616-JMU-FTB-Spring-Game1-DL.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7361,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7361","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":5},"title":"Dukes Are Playoff Bound, HOST Liberty Saturday 4 p.m.","date":"November 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"So what a weekend for JMU Football. The New Era of JMU football that Coach Withers has been preaching \u00a0since he took the job last offseason accomplished the first couple of what we hope our many more goals to come this weekend. First, they destroyed Elon and picked up their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/023-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9280"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9286,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280\/revisions\/9286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}