(05-06-2014 12:50 PM)GoAppsGo92 Wrote:  

(05-06-2014 12:31 PM)Campaign4Liberty Wrote:  

(05-06-2014 12:21 PM)GoAppsGo92 Wrote:  Your thread has fallen silent because it is over.

Is that so? It certainly will not be over until one of three things happens -

1. The SBC announces a UMass move
2. Liberty announces they are no longer in the running
3. June 1 passes with no announcement

As none of the above have happened, consider it far from over.

Ok, I respect the moxie, but take your rose colored glasses off, take a deep breath, and listen to the latest tidbit of information from the GSU AD without bias. What he said is that in light of JMU deciding to stay in FCS... while there are FCS schools out there that could fit the travel partner goal, and are located in the east division, there could be even more that would fit better in the conference if we waited for those schools to develop. In short: what he said is there are no FCS schools available currently the members want to invite.

Liberty's candidacy has ended in favor of waiting to see how several other schools that are a better fit develop. Knowing that if June 1 comes and goes without an FCS move up announcement, that means that the absolute earliest we could have a FCS move up join the league is 2016. Enter UMASS. They offer a division format a year earlier, need a home for football only, and are already FBS. They also need a semi-permanent set-up that they could escape if a more appealing option comes... Likely in the next 3-4 years or so. That timetable works for the SBC because the schools that we are truly interested in could develop and emerge as permanent replacements for Idaho and UMASS.

GSU's AD had more to say about the current state of available FCS schools than he ever had to say about UMASS... And it couldn't have been worse news for Liberty.

I agree with your post for the most part. Had JMU wanted the Belt I believe realignment would be done.

But...

Now the Belt needs to wait for an all-sports add in the east to mature so in the mean time I can see us adding UMass with a Idaho type escape clause. I also can see a formula in which the Belt goes to 14 at least for a while.

UMass added in 2015 or 16
NMSU added in 2015 or 16 for all sports
EKU and MO St added in 2016 or 17

East
UMass
App St
EKU
GA St
GS
Troy
USA

West
ULM
ULL
stAte
MO St
TX St
NMSU
Idaho

So that's 14/14 Football/Olympic with UTA and UALR taking the place of UMass and Idaho for Olympic sports.

At some point in the future Idaho and UMass could find a new home but to help stabilize all of the recent move ups a 14 school league could be preferable for some time to come.