Liberty and the Sun Belt: An Honest Assessment
Sigh. It’s time to talk about a school I actively try to avoid talking about, especially on social media. If for no other reason, it’s basically like talking about politics online. Almost nothing good ever comes from it.
Liberty University.
For those who are uninitiated, Liberty is a private Christian University located in Lynchburg, Virginia. While their on campus population is not gigantic by any means, it is their online presence (for schooling) that makes them such a robust institution in terms of funds. In a not so shy way, Liberty has used much of that online revenue to pour funds into their sports aspirations.
They’re not the only school to do this. BYU is bankrolled by the LDS Church after all who is said to have assets in the 290 billion plus dollar range. And SMU has a donor base that literally said, “we’ll foot the bill if you let us into the ACC”. However, in a world that loves to make distinctions, BYU and SMU would be considered “old” money. And their schools have more established athletic traditions and success. For perspective, Liberty in its current form was founded in 1971.
I do not want to get sidetracked though. The reason I have decided to write about this subject I actively try to avoid is because of conference realignment. On more than a few occasions, I have seen Liberty come up as a school the Sun Belt should *definitely* take if and when they decide to expand. For me, there are plenty of reasons, both past and present, why that is not only not necessarily a great idea, but why I think it would never happen, at least as the SBC is currently constructed.
Let’s get into it.
Rivalry or Dread?
If you were to have an honest conversation with schools in Virginia that do play Liberty, I am not sure how many of them would actually consider Liberty a “rival”. The dictionary definitions of rival are pretty poor, but in a collegiate context I think it would be best described as a school you love to beat, but also love playing annually and/or when they pop up on your schedule. You may have some “discrepancies” in terms of perceived prestige of one school compared to another, but on the whole rivals tend to have more in common than they do not.
I say all of that to say, I can’t think of any school’s fanbase on the whole in Virginia that gets overly excited when they see Liberty on the schedule. And they sure as heck would never want to see them on it annually, especially for football. If for no other reason, beating a rival should bring you some sort of joy, and maybe minor relief for bragging rights. Beating Liberty brings up a feeling of “oh thank God” rather than joy. That’s not necessarily healthy.
And it’s not only fans in Virginia that feel this way. Unprovoked yesterday, an App State Alum on social media replied to one of my posts. He admitted, as do I, that Liberty would be an instant regional “rival” for Sun Belt East schools. He said it would objectively be good for “business”. But he also followed that up with saying he would hate to see them on the schedule annually, and prefers to just ignore them. I don’t believe his sentiments are all that uncommon amongst other SBC fans as well.
In fact, the only reason I think many Virginia schools do play Liberty, at least from a practical standpoint, is to avoid negative recruiting. That’s what I try to tell myself for my beloved JMU softball anyway. Liberty could specifically negatively recruit against JMU and ODU if it appeared that the two “peers” were avoiding them on the gridiron. To a lesser extent the same applies for UVA and Virginia Tech. But, in a perfect world, I think most regional schools, including many in the Sun Belt East, would rather let Liberty schedule their out of conference as far away from them as possible. It’s just not a fun game to look forward to. So, rivalry or dread? I tend to lean more towards the latter.
The Not So Distant Past
As I said, Liberty was founded in 1971 by televangelist Jerry Falwell. I will not get into all of the particulars but you can do your own research on the worldview of the aforementioned Mr. Falwell. But I will say, his views of the world and the country did not magically disappear when his son Jerry Falwell Jr. took the reins at the school. And in fact, I have personal experience with just what that worldview was.
This is me admitting my own bias, but it is also something worth mentioning for context. When I was in the JMU marching band in 2009 we took our whole band to Liberty, all 450 plus of us. We had been to Maryland that year, a fan base not exactly known for being kind to visiting institutions (see Duke JJ Reddick discourse). But what we experienced at Liberty was by far the most hateful and viscerally toxic interactions I ever faced in our away experiences with the band.
Maybe they were particularly ornery because the game was being played in a literal monsoon…but on a serious note I have never heard/been called so many hateful and disgusting slurs in my life as I was during that game. Like, YouTube comment sections and Twitter replies by today’s standards were tamed in comparison. Needless to say, the only saving grace from that game was the fact that JMU won. The Dukes will be returning to Lynchburg this year, and perhaps the interactions will improve. But, even in the games following that one, said interactions between the two fan bases were not great.
I say all of this to say that Liberty is trying to clean up its reputation as a school founded by a loud pro segregationist. And with his son Jerry Falwell Jr. now out of the picture over the last few years at the school, they seem to want to get away from what is objectively their dubious past. They’re not the only school to do this. Take a look at the histories of BYU and the LDS church or Bob Jones University for more examples. However, 3-4 years of clean up is generally not enough time to make people forget about 5 decades of objectionable behavior, and being unapologetic about it.
Then again, this is 2025 and shame is out the window for many. So what do I know, right?
Sun Belt Geography
Liberty also has a hurdle in terms of geography.
Wait. Why the heck is that?
Well, as it currently stands, the SBC has a bit of an unwritten rule about the number of schools it wants from each state. Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana all have 2 schools with SBC membership, and they do not want to oversaturate the market with 3. While many national media pundits continue to peddle Louisiana Tech as a favorite to replace Texas State, this is a reason, amongst others, why some Sun Belt members aren’t so keen on the Bulldogs becoming members. It’s why Western Kentucky is seen as the most likely invite if the Sun Belt does decide to expand immediately.
But let’s also look at this from a slightly higher elevation. Let’s say the Sun Belt did want to lift that 2 school limit per state rule. Who would they potentially want to add, even before Liberty? I think there is an obvious answer and it’s a school that fits the Sun Belt in terms of geography and institutional similarity. I am, of course, speaking of Jacksonville State.
JSU is a school, like JMU, that has recently made the jump to FBS from FCS, and is currently in CUSA with Liberty. Objectively speaking, they are a school that had way more success and commitment to football at the FCS level than Liberty, even if they fell short of a national title. Plus, in 2024, Jacksonville State actually won the Conference USA title, obliterating Western Kentucky 52-12 in the title game. JSU does not have the bottomless pockets that Liberty does, but they have been upgrading their facilities and their commitment to football is obvious. Furthermore, they have an incredibly passionate fan base with a history of football success that is longer than the last 5-7 years.
So, if the Sun Belt even decided to let states have 3 schools, I think that there is the obvious option of JSU for the West and to a lesser extent Louisiana Tech. And this doesn’t even bring up the fact that if the American Athletic Conference starts to see cracks, it could open up the doors for ECU, UAB…heck even Charlotte. There are many options within the footprint for the Sun Belt to expand, but they also can’t sit on their hands for too long. I just don’t see Liberty in any of these plans if any more potential dominos fall in terms of more realignment or invites.
Recent Realignment Opportunities
The news moves fast nowadays, but it is not that long ago that we had realignment upheaval that caused all of the ripple effects we see today. The moves of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC made their way to the Sun Belt, even if no schools were necessarily on the poaching list for other conferences. But, the SBC wanted to be aggressive and expand.
I want to focus on Virginia here for this. But for context, the Sun Belt could have added Marshall and Southern Miss and kept Troy in the East. They could have been perfectly content there. However, being in Virginia made sense and there were potential and previous rivals in the state. ODU and Liberty were already FBS, and JMU was a perennial FCS powerhouse with a foot out the door of the CAA.
From what I gather, Liberty apparently lobbied and tried to buy their way into the Sun Belt, but the current schools were not a fan of that. If for no other reason, a school tossing around cash like that would likely intimidate other athletic departments, amongst other reasons as well. Furthermore, it seems like ODU also wanted nothing to do with being in the same conference as Liberty, and JMU was a former rival in all sports. So, the presidents voted to invite Marshall, Southern Miss, ODU and…JMU. Liberty was an independent right there and they decided not to go with them. They would eventually land in CUSA, who needed anyone who would accept an invite in order to survive.
The presidents may have changed at some of these universities, but the sentiments are still the same. The Sun Belt is all public institutions with modest athletic budgets. There’s also the fact that presidents have to consider the universities they want their research and alumni to be affiliated with in terms of conference affiliations. If you don’t think that’s a thing, look at why Villanova, Richmond, and William & Mary have all bolted the CAA for the Patriot League.
So once again, Liberty hits a roadblock here. JMU and ODU would not want to be in a conference with them. The rest of the Sun Belt has recently shown that they also want nothing to do with the college from Lynchburg becoming an annual opponent. So unless something changes, like the AAC raids the Sun Belt East proposing a much more lucrative TV deal and potentially more regional scheduling, Liberty seems stuck where they are.
No, it’s Not Religion
I know you aren’t supposed to talk about religion, at least not in the context of other subject matter. But whenever someone brings up the fact that they want nothing to do with Liberty being in their conference, inevitably one of their supporters (or a faceless twitter avatar) will say it’s “because they hate Christians”. Just stop it. Let’s look at this logically.
Liberty is a proudly evangelical institution and espouses all of the views that come with that. But guess what? The Sun Belt is in the freaking bible belt of the United States. No, not everyone in this part of the country is evangelical (I’m not but I am a Christian). However, there’s sure as heck a lot more loud and proud Christians per capita whether they be Southern Baptist, Methodist, heck even Catholic for our Louisiana brothers in the SBC footprint than the rest of the country. Needless to say, there’s a whole lot of God loving people in the Sun Belt. Faith, Family, and Football do not just apply to the SEC.
But even if we took that off the table and just looked at religious institutions on the whole, many Sun Belt schools shared conferences with schools that have religious affiliations. Appalachian State and Coastal Carolina shared conferences with schools that were even mostly populated by religious institutions. JMU had a long standing affiliation with Villanova throughout their years careening between the Yankee Conference, A-10, and CAA. And the current gosh darn Pope went to Villanova.
And if that weren’t enough, this perceived persecution just is not a thing. At least, not when it comes to conference affiliations. SMU didn’t get left out of the Big 12 once the Southwestern Conference fell apart because of religion. They got left out because they were a dumpster fire after getting the Death Penalty, and there was still the stench of that on them. If SMU for some reason wanted to join the Sun Belt, my guess is plenty of schools would welcome that with open arms.
BYU is a little bit of a different story. If you look up what the Mormon church taught in terms of skin color specifically…you can see why BYU stayed independent for so long. And you can draw your conclusions as to why that doctrine suddenly changed in the last few decades after they fought in favor of it for so long. But, they find themselves in the Big 12 now, and have always been somewhat of a Power conference ish program. Perhaps a little too far for the SBC to blindly accept, but I think you see what I am getting at.
Then there’s Notre Dame. Loudly Catholic. Loudly football. They were originally rebuffed by the Big Ten because of the strong religious affiliation according to many, but it also allowed them to grow as a national power and independent. Now the ACC wants them to be all in as a member, and the Big Ten would gladly boot Rutgers if it was needed to free up a spot for Notre Dame.
Now, this would literally never happen. But do you think the Sun Belt would say no to Notre Dame joining the conference because of strong religious affiliations? No, they would bend over backwards to find a way to accommodate them and reach into Ohio and the MAC to still make the conference continuous states.
Come on man.
So, no. When it comes to why the Sun Belt and others have not wanted to have Liberty in their conference, it has nothing to do with religion or believing in God. It’s all on y’all, Liberty. And if you still can’t understand that fact, well then bless your heart.
Conclusion
This was a bit more passionate than I originally intended. But, sometimes you just need to get stuff out of your brain and off of your heart. Conference realignment is excellent for content and engagement. But it can also be frustrating when anyone can just throw out an opinion without any context.
Even admitting my own bias because of the negative experience(s) I have had with Liberty, I think I have provided more than enough reasons as to why they’re not going to be a school the Sun Belt looks towards when it comes to realignment. Even if they go to 16 because of extenuating circumstances, there would be other options.
So, hopefully we can put the Liberty speculation to rest, for now. There are plenty of other schools that are a great fit for the Sun Belt. Let’s start with those. The conference is in a position of strength.
Oh, and to all of the PAC-9, Big 12, and AAC fans that keep showing up in the mentions saying the Sun Belt should *obviously* take Liberty. Ya know, since they’re so great and all. If Liberty is so great, why don’t y’all take them? The Sun Belt would be just fine with that.
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