As was first reported this weekend, the University of Maryland will be leaving the Atlantic Coast Conference to join the Big Ten Conference. Rutgers will vote on a move of their own tomorrow, and is expected to leave the Big East for the Big Ten as well. This latest round of realignment madness continues to have far reaching effects on the entire intercollegiate athletics landscape, as the power conferences (SEC, Big Ten, Pac 12, Big 12, ACC and Big East) persist in altering the make up of their respective leagues. How do these most recent moves effect Liberty, and the Flames’ prospects for making the jump to the FBS level? Let’s take a look and see what the departures of Maryland from the ACC and Rutgers from the Big East could mean.
Let’s start with Maryland. The Terps’ move out of the ACC leaves that league with 13 member schools, if you count the soon to be added Pittsburgh Panthers and Syracuse Orangemen. Of course, Pitt and Syracuse will be coming over from the Big East. With the ACC’s recent acquisition of Notre Dame in all sports but football, the Atlantic Coast Conference seems unlikely to add another member to replace Maryland in the short term. While Notre Dame will not be a true member of ACC football, they will still be guaranteed to be scheduling games against ACC opponents. This means the league will still have 13 football playing members, enough to keep their conference championship game.
The still potential move by Rutgers opens more possibilities for Liberty. The Big East currently sits at 8 teams for football. This means a move by Rutgers, in addition to the departures of Syracuse and Pitt leaves the league with only 5 football members. However, the Big East is scheduled to add Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, Memphis, San Diego State, and Southern Methodist on July 1 of 2013. Additionally, the conference is slated to add Navy in 2015. This gets the Big East to 12 football members, which is the magic number for a lucrative conference championship game. It remains unclear if the Big East will stay at that number, or move to 14 teams like the Big Ten, SEC, and perhaps ACC. It also remains unsure that Boise State and San Diego State, teams far outside of the Big East’s current footprint will stick around in the league beyond the short term.
All of this makes it likely that the Big East will indeed be looking for at least a pair of teams following Rutgers departure. Who those schools are, and where they come from will greatly impact the Flames’ chances of garnering a new conference invitation. Should the Big East take a pair of Conference USA schools, say East Carolina and UNC-Charlotte for example, it is possible that Liberty would draw the attention of Conference USA officials once again (Liberty was considered by C-USA in their last round of expansion). Another possibility is that Conference USA could replace their lost schools with teams from the Sun Belt or MAC. Should the Sun Belt lose 1 or 2 members, Liberty would be considered a top candidate to receive a Sun Belt invite. Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson had a strong interest in Liberty prior to the league’s university Presidents voting down expansion to 12 teams.
So once again, it’s time to sit back and wait for dominoes to fall in Liberty’s favor. One thing is for sure though, Liberty University continues to be FBS ready, and becomes a more attractive target for a larger conference all of the time.
