We had the privilege of speaking with Liberty Athletic Director Ian McCaw at length about the state of the Liberty Athletic program. We delved into a vast array of topics, focusing on the move of the athletic program from the ASUN into Conference USA. We also touched on several topics surrounding Liberty football, men’s basketball, and other programs on the Mountain.
This will be a multi-part series we release this week, be sure to check back tomorrow for the next part. Today’s feature focuses on the state of the athletic department by taking a look back at the 2022-23 athletic season, the time in the ASUN, ongoing facility projects, goals, and future realignment.
ASOR: The 2022-23 athletic season is officially in the rear-view, what will you most remember about this past year?
Ian McCaw: “I think it’s been a really successful year. We won 12 championships across our 20 sports. By any measure, that’s a successful year. I think when people look back on this year 10 years from now, it’s going to be the year of the big win. Football beating BYU, football beating Arkansas, men’s basketball beating Villanova, women’s basketball beating FGCU, softball had some huge wins, as well. I think that will be what this year is remembered for.”
ASOR: It also marks the end of a 5-year run in the ASUN, a successful run with a lot of championships. When you look back on that time in the ASUN, was that the perfect spot for Liberty during the past few years and what are some of the things you will remember fondly about the time in the ASUN?
Ian McCaw: “I think the ASUN era, this past five years, is the most successful period in the history of Liberty Athletics. We won 53 championships over that 5 year period, swept the ASUN all-sports awards every year they were given out, and, meanwhile, football, we made the transition to FBS, went to four straight bowl games, and won four games against Power Five teams. When you put that all together, a highly successful period for us. I believe, from an ASUN perspective, Liberty elevated the competition level in the ASUN and the ASUN caused Liberty to elevate all of our athletic programs. It was a mutually beneficial relationship that benefited the conference and benefited Liberty. We will be fortunate to continue it with a couple of sports with the majority of our sports going on to Conference USA.”
ASOR: The baseball pitching lab has been announced, what is the current timeline of that project and are there any other projects you see in the near future?
Ian McCaw: “We have three that we are in the midst of right now, the baseball pitching lab we are finalizing plans for that right now and that will go out to bid here shortly. Golf practice facility is a big project for that program. We finalized the plans, that’s being bid on right now, hopefully that will get underway before too long. We’re also making some improvements at Campus East for lacrosse and field hockey those programs will benefit from those as well. Those are the projects that are in progress right now. We completed the Multi-purpose facility, that has been a great addition not just for athletics but for club sports, intramurals as well, and we had, I think, five graduations in there also. That’s been a great asset to campus. We are really glad to have that done as well.”
ASOR: What would be your biggest goals that you would like to see various teams in the athletic department accomplish in the next few years?
Ian McCaw: “That was one of the things we talked about as well with the analysis, really our programs are well resourced to start having some national success. Football: conference championship, CFP opportunity. Basketball programs: NCAA Tournament, making a little bit of a run. Baseball, softball: getting to a Super, College World Series. Those are kind of the big, hairy, audacious goals that are out there for us to accomplish. Many of our other programs have the ability to start competing on a national scale. We have seen it already in field hockey, some of our other programs, some of our athletes are having success at the national level in track. I think we’re going to start seeing more and more national level performances by our teams. That’s what really gets me excited and is something that we’re looking forward to in the future.”
ASOR: Liberty fans always have their eyes on the next conference move, there is a lot of talk of realignment in the industry currently, what do you think it looks like for Liberty moving forward? Obviously it’s an exciting time to join CUSA, but is there potential for LU to make a future move in the next however many years?
Ian McCaw: “We haven’t even dipped our toe into Conference USA yet, we are excited about doing that and really think that’s a great home for us as we move into the future. The only thing certain is there will be further conference realignment down the road.”
“It’s really hard to predict where we might be 5, 7, or 10 years from now, but certainly Liberty has an athletic program, a University that is upwardly mobile. We are well resourced. We have great facilities, great personnel. Actually, we just did a SWOT analysis with our staff, the things that really stood out is we have a great mission-culture, we get great support from the University, tremendous personnel, facilities, and resources, and we do a really good job of developing our student-athletes. When you combine all of those strengths, which they are in our case, it really gives you an opportunity to have a lot of success. I think our future is very bright. I think our best years are ahead of us.”
