Another edition of the ASOR Mailbag! Thank you for submitting your questions and continue to send them in and we will be happy to answer them in our next feature. You can send them to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, e-mail, or as a comment on the site. We had a ton of great questions this week, so let’s get right to it.

1. The renovations and upgrades to Williams Stadium this summer will not affect capacity as it will remain at 25,000. The increase from the berm and cabanas will be offset by the loss of seats as all chairbacks will be added for all premium seats.

2. It’s hard not to pick the upgrades to Williams Stadium, but the new multiuse indoor facility will likey benefit the athletic department the most across the board. This facility will help a number of sports including baseball, softball, soccer, and lacrosse.

3. I have no idea on this. Good question. I’m certain Liberty will be included in the game though.

How will NIL be competing with LFSN and the athletic department for resources? The athletic department isn’t and can’t pay athletes through NIL, that all has to be external from third party business and fans through a collective. For the Flames Club, sure that is and could be a competitor with NIL. One thing to remember, for the majority of athletes, especially at a non-Power Five level, the average dollar amount for NIL deals is around $100. So, it’s not like the athletes are making a living off NIL.

The ASUN conerence schedule was released on Thursday and we’ve been able to piece together a handful of non-conference games (Southern Miss, Northwestern, Bradley or Auburn, and Bryant). There have only been a handful of Division I men’s basketball teams that have released their full non-conference schedules to this point. News will continue to leak out about the remaining games over the next few weeks. I’m sure we will have the finalized schedule by the end of the summer.

To my knowledge, it is still uncertain where the men’s soccer program will reside following the 2022 fall season. Conference USA currently offers the sport, but nearly all of their current members with men’s soccer programs are leaving the league. The only holdover will be FIU. Of the four incoming schools, Liberty is the only one that currently offers men’s soccer.

The Sun Belt previously did not offer the sport, but they will starting this fall with former CUSA members Marshall and Old Dominion joining in addition to former CUSA affiliate members Kentucky and South Carolina. The options are limited. Liberty could try to work out an agreement with the ASUN to remain there or attempt to join another local league like the Big South or Big East.

A question from Instagram – “Saw some sources are calling our FB team getting a 9 – 3 record, thoughts?”

Who are these mysterious sources? Haha. In our 2022 ASOR Liberty Football Magazine Preview, all contributors to the magazine provide our game by game win-loss breakdown, so be sure to check that out when it is released July 1. I think 9-3 would be an overachievement and tremendous year. The Flames will certainly be underdogs in four games and the UAB game is a toss-up. Two other games Liberty will likely be a one touchdown or less favorite. I think a more reasonable expection is about 7 wins before a bowl game with a range of 6-8 wins the most likely.

Another question from Instagram – “What future moves do you see football making to their non-conf sched to make it more enticing?”

As we have reported on and discussed previously, we will continue to see games removed from Liberty’s future schedules. We saw this again earlier this week when the North Carolina game from 2024 was dropped. With Liberty needing to drop as many as eight games every season starting with 2023 and moving forward, this will be a common occurence. It will feel like death by a thousand cuts as these announcements slowly trickle out over the next several weeks and months.

AD Ian McCaw has previously stated his goal for non-conference schedules in Conference USA is to play one FCS, one regional Power Five, and two regional Group of Five opponents every year. So, a perfect non-conference schedule would look something like this: vs Campbell, at Coastal Carolina, vs Appalachian State, and at Wake Forest.

Another Instagram question – “How likely is it Coach Freeze stays for the next 10 years?”

To stay at Liberty 10 more years? I put that less than 10% chance. Coaches just don’t stay in one place that long. Could he stay at Liberty for the rest of his coaching career? Yes, I believe that is true. There is still a chance he would like to take a job that gives him a chance to win a national championship before he hangs it up. He will turn 53 this fall, so it also wouldn’t be shocking if he decides to retire before 10 years.

Final question from Instagram – “Updated projected offensive and defensive depth chart?”

We updated our depth chart just a few weeks ago. We will next update it as part of our 2022 magazine previewing the season.