Big South Media Day

[ccujacket]

If you're interested, you can watch the Big South Football Media Day at this link (http://www.bigsouthsports.com/liveEvents/liveEvents.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4800&KEY=DWZYINTJSCWSMSD.20050726153527&IN_SUBSCRIBER_CONTENT=YES) .

It's free and it starts at 12:30.

[colgate13]

Anyone want to place bets they mention I-AA name changes issues?

[Sly Fox]

You lost me.

When you only have five teams in your league, it doesn't take long to do Media Day. The webcast was pretty poor in quality.

Here's your Preseason Poll if you have any interest:

2005 Preseason Poll (first-place votes) Points
1. Coastal Carolina (11) 73
2. Liberty (3) 57
3. Gardner-Webb (2) 56
4. VMI 29
5. Charleston Southern 25

[rokamortis]

The webcast was pretty poor in quality.


It was certainly far from perfect but i didn't find it too bad. The video feed was decent and the audio was ok, i just couldn't have it jacked up. I didn't like the one guy walking in front of the camera though :rolleyes:

[rokamortis]

Anyone want to place bets they mention I-AA name changes issues?

Sly - he is referring to how pretty much every other conference media day so far has talked about the I-AA name chnage. I didn't hear anything today about it, but we didn't hear the private interviews. I would bet the commish would want to talk about expanding the playoffs more so than changng the division name.

[Mr. C]

While I can't judge the video quality, I can say that things were pretty well done in person. It was a very productive media day. Keep a look out tomorrow for I-AA.org's thoughts on the Big South meeting. There were some interesting things to come out of the two-day event. It's nice going to an event where the conference office and the coaches and ADs are truly grateful to spend time with the media and are extremely accessable. This is a league that is building things the right way and should begin to earn some respect this season. It was also a pleasure getting to talk with the Big South's preseason co-offensive players of the year, QB Collin Drafts of Charleston Southern and tailback Patrick Hall of Coastal Carolina. Hall is tiny, but he says that helps him hide from the defensive linemen and linebackers. I-AA.org had a very nice two days at the Big South gathering. Only wish that we had enough finances to hit everyone's conference media day.

[Sly Fox]

Ok, rok. I've seen the multiple posting on decoupling and the like. I just didn't understand the reference in this thread. It makes sense now.

Perhaps it was just my connection, but the audio became completely unbearable after about 5 minutes logged on once the thing actually began. The video stream was fine. But the buzz that came & went at the beginning decided to stick around and increase after awhile. Perhaps it had something to do with when you were able to log onto the server.

I'm curious, Mr. C. What things are the league doing to build the right way? I ask this as someone who truly wants this league to make strides.

[ccujacket]

I'm curious, Mr. C. What things are the league doing to build the right way? I ask this as someone who truly wants this league to make strides.

I'd be interested in hearing that too, because frankly with this conference, I'm not believing it until I see it.

[Go...gate]

I've always been fascinated by the Liberty story because your school has grown so fast. Any thoughts of 1-A status down the line?

As to your team in '05, seems to me that you guys have been underrated. How has recruiting been?

[ATrain]

Yes we have grown quite quickly (an additional 1,000 students/yr since 2001 for a total this year around 9,200), and when we won the league in Basketball in 04 the ESPN article mentioned that it was in Falwell's mind...give us a few more years and then we'll see where we're at.

As for being under-rated, we lost three good running backs to graduation...hopefully we are underrated, but we'll just have to wait and see.

[Tribe4SF]

I hope Liberty begins to make real progress on being competitive. Your recruiting class looks pretty good. I would think QB play may still be an issue, and you don't appear to have any depth there other than the two true freshmen. Look forward to seeing you guys in Williamsburg.

[Go...gate]

As long as your O-line has some cohesion, Liberty should be OK. Best of luck in the upcoming season!

[Mr. C]

I'm curious, Mr. C. What things are the league doing to build the right way? I ask this as someone who truly wants this league to make strides.
Each school is doing things a little differently, but they taking their time to build programs from the ground up, they are adding towards the full number of scholarships (CSU, GWU and VMI), they are trying to improve their facilities (particularly GWU, CCU and Liberty) and they are gradually toughening up their schedules as they add the players who can compete at that level. There is also very good support from the conference office on how to get those jobs done.

[Sly Fox]

Go ... Gate --- Thanks for the notice. Yeah, since the school was founded 30+ years ago we have had a goal of I-A status. Ten years ago, we appeared to be on that path. But the combination of conference issues (being turned down by a laundry list of leagues) and an overall lack of success on the field against subpar competition has stunted our growth. But we are doing our best to try and right the ship and get back to where we are on the level of other I-AA schools in Virginia like JMU and W&M. We know we're way behind at the moment. But that's our focus for the future.

The Big South is where we are right now with no real other option. So we are committed to trying to improve the league while hopefully getting in a position of carrying its banner. Recruiting has been tough without an auto bid, but we had a really strong class back in February. And we're anxious to see what kind of impact they can make right away. Losing 24 seniors and basically our entire RB corps will make things tough.

We'd love nothing more than to knock off the Tribe in W-burg and maybe make some noise up in Storrs as well.

Both Liberty & Coastal are two schools that are growing very rapidly and will hopefully maintian our relationship wherever we wind up in the future. That's why you see us asking similar questions on this board.