The Sun Belt Conference Spring meetings wrapped up today, and the conference once again stopped short of adding a 12th football playing member. Despite months of appeals by Conference President Karl Benson, the university Presidents’ were unable to come to a consensus on expansion, effectively ending Liberty’s chances of moving to FBS for the 2015 season.
Quote from Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson: “While we may explore adding a 12th all-sports member join the Sun Belt Conference, at this time we are moving the conference forward with our membership as is.”
The Sun Belt Presidents failed to come to consensus on a 12th member at their recent meetings.
Over the past several months, quite a few schools had been considered for expansion, with Liberty and JMU being the most oft mentioned. Other schools thought to be in the mix at one point or another included Missouri State, Eastern Kentucky, and UMass. Ultimately though, Liberty was the only school that proved to be ready to move to the Sun Belt in all sports.
Rather than make the obvious move to add Liberty, the Sun Belt members failed to move forward with a 12th member. The reasoning behind the lack of action is still unclear. However, given Liberty’s obvious FBS readiness, combined with what was likely a substantial financial incentive for LU to be added, one truly has to wonder if a league full of state schools was simply unwilling to add an evangelical Christian school to their ranks.
Ultimately, the Flames will have to make the best of this disappointing decision. What Liberty’s next move will be remains to be seen. We, as always, will continue to monitor the situation and provide more information as it becomes available.
Liberty needs to get out of the Big South at all costs. At this point, it is clear that FBS is not going to happen anytime soon. The CAA or SoCon would probably be the only options, with the latter being the realistic option. Liberty is not in a good position right now regarding conference affiliation whichever way you spin it.
Before they can get out of the Big South, they need to prove they can win the Big South in the only 2 sports that matter. Being competitive in the conference in one of them won’t cut it. Until they can do that, why would any conference take them?
It’s no big deal yet. They still have until June 1st to make the decision final. We just have to pray it happens because we can certainly compete in the Sunbelt conference if given the chance. Especially in football, baseball, and our women’s sports