Kyleigh Pitzer

[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.