Kyleigh Pitzer

[JMV JustMyView]

Heading to North Alabama.

[ragin50]

Heading to North Alabama.

I thought she would have gotten a better offer than that.

[JMV JustMyView]

I thought she would have gotten a better offer than that.

Maybe she did and just wanted to attend a school close to home.

[R1Letterman]

Isn't north alabama purple and gold, those other sources may have been close but crystal ball a little fuzzy, lmao

[VObserver]

North Alabama is not a bad destination for Pitzer. They play in the ASUN, with Liberty and Central Arkansas, and their RPI this past season was a respectable 88. She should do well there.

[RaginDave]

North Alabama is not a bad destination for Pitzer. They play in the ASUN, with Liberty and Central Arkansas, and their RPI this past season was a respectable 88. She should do well there.

Liberty is leaving for CUSA this year, this will be a huge loss for the A-SUN in many sports. They also lose Jacksonville State, J-State had an RPI of 101, Liberty had an RPI of 25th. That is two of the top 4 teams in the A-SUN this year. The A-SUN will take a huge step back in softball next year with the loss of these two teams.

It will be left with:

20 UCA
75 FGCU
88 UNA
103 UNF
105 Stetson
112 Austin Peay
130 Jacksonville
144 Kennessaw State
153 Lipscomb
173 EKU
178 Queens University of Charlotte
284 Bellarmine

[moorecajun]

Liberty is leaving for CUSA this year, this will be a huge loss for the A-SUN in many sports.

They will immediately become the anchor store in that strip mall.

[RaginDave]

They will immediately become the anchor store in that strip mall.

Oh, I don't disagree with you that the CUSA will suck, but the A-SUN losing two schools like Liberty and Jacksonville State will hurt quite a bit. Liberty will be automatically one of the best teams in the CUSA in baseball, softball, football, men's basketball, golf, men's tennis, women's basketball, women's soccer, women's tennis, women's volleyball.

[VObserver]

Oh, I don't disagree with you that the CUSA will suck, but the A-SUN losing two schools like Liberty and Jacksonville State will hurt quite a bit. Liberty will be automatically one of the best teams in the CUSA in baseball, softball, football, men's basketball, golf, men's tennis, women's basketball, women's soccer, women's tennis, women's volleyball.

No doubt it will hurt, but 9 of the 12 remaining schools were in the top half of RPI this season. The ASUN won't be AS good as this year, but it will still be comfortably in the top 1/3 or so conferences. I don't know about the rest of their sports, but softball won't be bad.

[R1Letterman]

Wow Liberty Market (roanoke-lynchburg) in top 75, higher than sec stalwarts Columbia SC and Baton Rouge LA.... even higher than omaha and Tallahassee
CUSA just like Kennah Brah used to be "On the Move"

[RaginDave]

No doubt it will hurt, but 9 of the 12 remaining schools were in the top half of RPI this season. The ASUN won't be AS good as this year, but it will still be comfortably in the top 1/3 or so conferences. I don't know about the rest of their sports, but softball won't be bad.

That is true, but remember those teams will be missing at least 6 games vs top 100 RPI teams, including 3 vs Top 25 RPI teams. This will not just hurt them because they won't have them in the conference, but it will hurt them because their RPI will suffer by not playing games vs those teams.

That is 6 games vs Top 100 RPI teams you will need to replace to keep your RPI near that number. Their saving grace is #20 UCA, if they can continue to play near that level. But there will be a significant drop off from #1 - #2 now.

[RaginDave]

They will immediately become the anchor store in that strip mall.

I think that Liberty wants a very short term relationship with the CUSA. I think their end goal is a bigger conference then the CUSA, but they had to take what they could get. Liberty has a very good fan base, ridiculously financially stable and better than average overall athletic programs when compared to other G5/Mid Major programs. The A-SUN was a holding place for them for all sports until they could find a FCS conference that would accept them.

Believe me they would much rather be partnered with the SBC or even the MAC if they had their options, but I think they are/were hoping the AAC would take a flyer on them. The biggest thing holding them back is the stigma of being a religious school and not just religious, but more on the Pentacostal/Evangelical side of things and potentially the fairly recent Falwell family scandal, which still lurks over the university.

If it was just based on Alumni, finances, athletic prowess and even location, they would already be in a much larger conference than the CUSA. I think they will pretty much dominate the top 3 spots in almost every sport from day 1. They are hoping with time and more success another conference comes calling.