Jeremy Fowler, a college football insider for CBS Sports, reports that Liberty is among 4-6 schools vying for the 12th Sun Belt spot. In this report, no other schools are mentioned as possible replacements. The only other school mentioned is Coastal Carolina by saying they are “not” among those 4-6 schools.
Fowler: “The Sun Belt Conference is looking to add a 12th member by June 1 and has received interest from 4-6 FCS-level schools.”
He also quotes Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson: “Liberty is on our radar screen and will continue to be on our radar.” Benson went further in explaining with 12 teams, the Sun Belt would be able to create geographic divisions, and “right now, it’s pretty obvious the Sun Belt is void a team in the eastern division.”
Geography and creating natural rivals is the main attraction of being part of The Sun Belt Conference for me (everybody knows the Virginia-Idaho, Virginia-New Mexico rivalry used to be hot and only needs to be rekindled). Other than that…..I don’t know.
In my opinion, if LU were a secular school embracing Evolution, Man-made Global Warming, pro-LGBT, etc., they would have already been welcomed with open arms.