Liberty Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. took to the airwaves this week on the Virginia Talk Radio Network for an interview on a variety of topics. However one of the first to come up was this season’s Coastal Carolina game, as well as Liberty’s recent unsuccessful attempts at joining the Sun Belt Conference. When asked about the season’s final regular season match up being moved to Thursday night (11/19), Falwell had this to say:
“It took some negotiating between Jeff Barber and the Athletic Director at Coastal and the President and me, and we finally struck a deal and it’s going to better for both schools I think, because our students will still be in town on the Thursday before Thanksgiving. And when you play that game on Saturday everybody’s gone, it’s like a ghost town. It was a multi-year deal, but I don’t guess it will be now that Coastal’s going to the Sun Belt, but at least it will be this year.”
While it had been previously reported that the two schools had attempted to work out a Thursday night game in seasons past, it is news that this was to be a multi-year deal. It remains to be seen whether or not Coastal Carolina will continue to be on Liberty’s football schedule after this season. It certainly seems like it would be beneficial to both schools to continue the rivalry, however, realignment has killed much longer running rivalries in college football.
Chancellor Falwell opened up about the realignment process in a recent interview.
This naturally led into a discussion on the Sun Belt, and Liberty’s chances of moving to FBS going forward. When asked about the Sun Belt’s addition of Coastal Carolina, Chancellor Falwell offered some explanation as to why it wasn’t Liberty.
“Two years ago the obstacle we ran into is the Sun Belt is all public universities, every single one of them. And there was a lot of feeling inside the conference that they didn’t want to add any private schools. We needed 9 votes out of 11, and there were 3 Presidents that just couldn’t vote for a private school, a couple of them didn’t like the idea that Liberty was a Christian school. But some of that has changed now.”
Falwell’s explanation seems to go along with the idea that Liberty’s identity as a uniquely Christian institution was a major factor in the Sun Belt’s denial of LU. The Chancellor made no mention of resources, geography, on field success, or online presence. Certainly most observers have felt that the Sun Belt door appeared to have shut on Liberty following the addition of Coastal. However Falwell believes otherwise.
“I’ve been talking with Karl Benson and I think he at least is pushing for the Sun Belt to continue to expand, I don’t know how far, (maybe) 13-14 teams, and so we’re moving ahead with the membership process, going through the protocol, and that will be happening this Fall I think.”
“I just don’t think the Sun Belt was ready for a private school. I know a lot of people inside the Sun Belt have told me, I’ve gotta think of a nice way to say it, but they just think that the 2 or 3 that were against Liberty made a huge mistake. So we’re continuing to work on that, and we’ve got other options we’re working on too.”
The prospect of further Sun Belt expansion is surprising in some ways, considering the league’s apprehension at expanding to 12 teams. On the other hand, moving to 14 teams would insulate the conference should another league, such as Conference USA, poach a pair of schools from them as has occurred in recent history.
So has anything really changed in Sun Belt circles? It’s tough to tell, but if Jerry Falwell’s read of the situation is accurate, it certainly seems like the door to the Sun Belt has not been slammed shut. The addition of Coastal should give Liberty another “yes” vote once they are granted voting privileges. However, it appears that the Sun Belt was considering Eastern Kentucky and New Mexico State over Liberty before adding Coastal.
Hopefully those “other options” Falwell has spoken of are developing nicely.
