Liberty President Jerry Falwell, Jr. was a guest on a local radio show on Thursday morning, and, in addition to other topics, Falwell discussed Liberty’s 2020 football schedule.

“I don’t know but I do know that our AD (Ian McCaw) has been watching what’s happening with these other conferences,” President Falwell said when asked if he thought Liberty would play Virginia Tech to open the season on Sept. 5 as scheduled.

Liberty has already lost its home opener against North Carolina A&T scheduled for Sept. 12, and there are rumors that the ACC will follow the Big Ten and PAC-12 to go to a conference-only format for the 2020 season. The Flames are scheduled to face three ACC opponents this season – Virginia Tech, Syracuse, and NC State.

“We think it might be an opportunity for Liberty,” Falwell continued. “I’ve gotten calls from Independent University Presidents and all of us, if the conferences are only going to play each other, then we need to do the same thing.”

As we’ve previously reported, the Flames have had conversations with the other FBS Independent schools about playing each other if other FBS conferences resort to conference only schedules. These conversations have been ongoing throughout much of the spring and summer.

“We may end up playing some pretty big name teams otherwise we wouldn’t have played because of what the conferences are doing by limiting their games to conference play,” Falwell stated. “We don’t know yet, but we think it’s going to end up being a positive for Liberty. But who knows, between now and the fall…you’ve got to have somebody to play. You can’t just decide, well, we’re going to have a football season. Other schools have to decide as well.”

Liberty is currently scheduled to face fellow FBS Independents Connecticut on Oct. 31 on the road and a home date against UMass on Nov. 28. Games against the other Independents – Notre Dame, Army, BYU, and New Mexico State – are also possibilities. BYU has already lost 5 games with the Big Ten and PAC-12’s decisions.

Notre Dame is more of a longshot as they are likely to be included as part of the ACC’s conference-only schedule plan. Though, if the Irish wish to play a full 12 games, they would need to go outside of the ACC for a couple of matchups.

“We’re talking to Independent schools, there’s a lot of big name Independent schools,” Falwell stated. “That could all fall apart, if different governors make rules or if the NCAA makes rules that don’t exist right now, but the team’s we’re talking to, if it all works out like we think it will, it’s going to be an exciting season.”

When asked if he wanted to drop specific names, President Falwell said, “Look up Independent NCAA schools, you will see right there who I’m talking about.”

While we’ve only seen one official change to Liberty’s 2020 football schedule so far, others are likely to follow.

“Our schedule’s going to be totally different than what we’ve published,” said Falwell.