In the previous round of realignment, during 2013 and 2014, Liberty University pursued Conference USA, among other FBS conferences, even offering the league $24 million to join the league. C-USA elected not to extend an invitation to Liberty or even go to a vote among its members at that time, but a lot has changed over the past 7 years and C-USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod was in Lynchburg on Friday to officially welcome the Liberty Flames as one of C-USA’s newest members.
“This is an extremely exciting day for Conference USA as we welcome Liberty into our family,” Commissioner MacLeod stated. “I can’t say enough good things, but the thing that really stands out to me is (Athletic Director) Ian (McCaw’s) vision and leadership for this program, the absolutely 100% commitment to the student-athlete experience, and the wonderful people throughout this department.”
Liberty will become an all-sports member in Conference-USA on July 1, 2023. The Flames will be one of nine all-sports members joining Florida International, Jacksonville State, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, New Mexico State, Sam Houston State, UTEP, and Western Kentucky.
Since the previous flirtation with C-USA, Liberty has made tremendous strides in its athletic program across most of its 20 Division I athletic teams. The football team became an FBS Independent member in 2018 and has since become bowl eligible in each of its first three seasons at the FBS level. The Flames finished the 2020 campaign 10-1 and ranked No. 17 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll following a season with wins over Virginia Tech, Syracuse, and previously unbeaten Coastal Carolina.
Under the tutelage of Ritchie McKay, the men’s basketball team has won 20 or more games in each of the past five seasons and have won both the regular season and tournament title in the ASUN the last three years. The Flames advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2019 and 2021, winning the program’s first ever NCAA Tournament in the first round of the 2019 tournament.
Liberty has seen tremendous growth in its baseball program, as well. Head coach Scott Jackson has led that team to the 2019 ASUN Championship and appearances in both of the last two NCAA Tournaments. This past spring, the Flames advanced to the Regional Final before falling to regional host Tennessee.
The softball team has become a threat nationally, finishing with a final RPI of No. 19 this past spring. The Lady Flames, led by head coach Dot Richardson, reached the Regional Final before falling to eventual College World Series participant James Madison.
All of this success caught the eyes of Conference USA, and it made too much sense for them to bypass the Flames. Liberty’s case became too much to overcome as C-USA dealt with the loss of nine member institutions over the past several weeks as conference realignment was sped up.
“At that time, when we were having those conversations, our membership decided to stay where we were and not expand,” MacLeod said of the league’s decision in 2014. “It wasn’t a situation where a vote was taken or anything like that, we just stayed where we were. Over the years, to see what they’ve done as they’ve transitioned to FBS, and what they’ve done in all of their sports, have really just made it a great fit for us. It’s going to be hard to wait until July 2023 to be honest.”
MacLeod, who took a site visit to Liberty a couple weeks ago to view the school’s facilities, was joined at the press conference by Liberty Athletic Director Ian McCaw, men’s basketball head coach Ritchie McKay, and softball head coach Dot Richardson. Led by McCaw’s leadership since he was hired in 2017, Liberty has been actively seeking a home in an FBS conference for several years.
“The FBS conference aspiration has been one that Liberty has pursued for many years,” said McCaw during Friday’s press conference. “We saw this as an opportunity to join a really high quality conference that’s going to elevate the level of competition and provide us an elevated platform for our programs to compete in.”
Conference USA is currently at 14 members, but that was before this most recent round of realignment. The American Athletic Conference tabbed six C-USA members in Marshall, Florida Atlantic, Charlotte, UTSA, UAB, and North Texas to join their league. The Sun Belt then went on the offensive and added Southern Miss, Old Dominion, and Marshall from C-USA.
This left C-USA on life support and Commissioner MacLeod looked to FBS Independents Liberty and New Mexico State as well as FCS powerhouses Sam Houston State and Jacksonville State to help stabilize the league. Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky flirted with the Mid-American Conference in recent weeks, but both schools announced their intention to remain in Conference USA earlier in the week.
“It was definitely good news,” MacLeod said of MTSU and WKU electing to remain in the league. “I might have gotten a couple hours of sleep that night. We are really excited about both of those programs. They have become our central point in the conference. They are both committed to getting better across the board, and both of them have really good programs already. It was a key for us and just going to help us continue to build and improve.”
Commissioner MacLeod has previously stated that the conference, with its headquarters in Dallas, Texas, had dialogue with several teams interested in joining the the FBS league, one of the Group of Five members at college football’s highest level. There were a number of factors the league office looked into for potential members, including school’s social media following.
“It was very detailed,” she said of their review process. “We looked at everything from university mission, academic credentials on the university side, besides the competitive part obviously, looked at academic performance for student-athletes. We looked at community support, we looked at social media following. It used to be driven by the media markets, that has changed so that now following a number of eyeballs, number of fans, living alumni, all of those things factor into that. We went through quite an extensive process for all of the schools that we vetted to get to where we are.”
Liberty currently sponsors 20 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Most of those will seamlessly transition into Conference USA beginning with the 2023-24 athletic season. Liberty and Conference USA both currently offer football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s golf, women’s soccer, women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track and field, and volleyball.
The league also sponsors men’s soccer, but the only remaining institution that does as well as Florida International. C-USA has affiliate men’s soccer members in Kentucky and South Carolina. Liberty is the only incoming member that also sponsors men’s soccer.
In men’s tennis, only Middle Tennessee and Liberty offer the sport. FIU and Liberty are the only two women’s swimming & diving teams. Both sports are currently offered by Conference USA, and Commissioner MacLeod states she would like to put a plan together to keep those sports in place.
“We are going to talk to our members, but we do believe we could add affiliates in different sports,” she stated. “Men’s soccer has been one that has been very good for us, and we’d like to try to continue that. We currently have a couple other affiliates there that could continue with us and add a couple more. We’ve gone over the sports sponsorship chart numerous times and are charting different paths. Will there be a sport that we used to sponsor that now maybe somebody has to find another home? That’s a possibility. Hopefully we have those answers sooner rather than later, but we have a little bit of time.”
C-USA does not offer field hockey and women’s lacrosse, additional sports that Liberty competes in at the NCAA Division I level. The Flames’ field hockey program will likely remain in the Big East where it has been an affiliate member since the 2016 season. Liberty currently competes in the ASUN for women’s lacrosse, but that is likely to change moving forward.
“If there’s not an opportunity in Conference USA, then we will pursue a conference relationship for a sport in that situation,” McCaw said when asked about women’s lacrosse. “We will begin working with Conference USA and see what can be established. That would be our preference, if possible.”
With nine all-sports members could look to further bolster the conference base in the coming weeks and months. There has also been a lot of speculation about possibly adding football only members in UMass or UConn, both currently FBS Independent teams. The NCAA allows conferences to hold conference championship games in football with less than 12 teams provided one of two requirements are met. A conference must either play their championship game between division winners after round-robin competition in each division or between the top two teams in the conference standings following full round-robin, regular season competition between all members of the conference.
If C-USA moves forward with nine football members, the league could establish a full round-robin schedule of eight games for each team. The top two teams in the conference standings could then compete in a conference championship game.
“We are continuing to evaluate all the opportunities at this stage,” MacLeod stated of future expansion for the conference. “Now, is when we plan to include the new members to make sure they have input into the process. It has been just our group. The bigger group now is our group moving forward. So, we want to make sure we include all of them in the process. We will continue to evaluate it. Nothing is really off the table now and no final decision has been made.”
Conference USA currently has a television deal with CBS that expires after the 2022-23 academic year. The conference also has separate deals with Stadium and ESPN (mostly streaming on ESPN+) and Facebook also carries some of the league’s football and basketball games. Schools reportedly receive between $400,000 and $500,000 annually in the current deal. Of course, this will be negotiated after all the moving of teams within the league and the current deal set to expire.
“We believe it’s going to be very positive for us,” said MacLeod about the four new institutions helping the conference get a better television deal. “The timing really syncs up well. Our current deal expires at the end of next year. We will go to market this spring and bring our new members in to participate in that process. We see it as a plus in a number of ways.”
Prior to its time in the ASUN and an FBS Independent, Liberty was a member of the Big South from 2002-2017. The Flames won at least a share of the Big South football championship in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 ,2013, 2014, and 2016. Liberty made the FCS playoffs one time, in 2014, defeating James Madison in the first round before falling to Villanova in the second round.
The men’s basketball team won the Big South Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 1994, 2004, and 2013. The women’s basketball team won 16 Big South regular season championships and 17 Big South tournament titles during the program’s 27 years in the conference.
The new look Conference USA has a chance to be one of the better mid-major basketball conferences in the country. UTEP, New Mexico State, Louisiana Tech, Western Kentucky, and Liberty have all had solid programs in recent seasons and have been able to compete at a national level. Middle Tennessee has seen a high level of success, as well, in recent seasons. One of the biggest changes Liberty will see from the ASUN, is there won’t be teams rated 300+ nationally, something that has limited how high the Flames’ could rise in the NET rankings.
“I embrace the competition,” Liberty head men’s basketball coach Ritchie McKay said on Friday. “It’s been really hard to schedule the last couple years. Being in a league that I think, arguably, could be one of the best mid-major leagues, that could potentially be a multiple bid opportunity, I think all of the coaches in the league would appreciate and value that.”
Liberty University was founded in 1971, making it one of the youngest NCAA Division I institutions in the country. Liberty was originally an NAIA Independent from 1973-1980 before making the move to the NCAA Division II level where the Flames were an Independent from 1981-1987. LU made the move to Division I in 1988, originally as an Independent until joining the Big South.
“As we look towards the future, we couldn’t be more excited about our conference affiliation,” said McCaw. “This has been the culmination of a great deal of work on the part of many people for a long period of time. Liberty has aspired to join an FBS conference for more than a decade. This opportunity to join Conference USA at this particular time is a tremendous blessing to our entire institution and our athletic program.”
