C-USA rejected Liberty University's generous offer to join the league ... but the Flames ended up as

[TexasTowelie]

C-USA rejected Liberty University's generous offer to join the league ... but the Flames ended up as the big winners

LYNCHBURG -- Since Liberty University announced in 2012 its plan to move to the Football Bowl Subdivision, officials worked diligently to find a conference – any conference – willing to accept the Flames.

The NCAA requires a Football Championship Subdivision school to join an FBS league to move. Liberty officials intensely lobbied the two leagues that made geographic sense – Conference USA and the Sun Belt – with no luck.

Liberty even offered to open its checkbook. Sources told me that in 2016, Liberty offered Conference USA millions of dollars more than the usual $2 million admission fee for an invitation.

How many millions more? One source pegged the offer at $24 million. The offer coincidentally came at about the same time C-USA was learning its TV revenue would soon crater, going from paying $1.1 million per school annually to about $200,000.

But C-USA presidents, who had the final call, were unwilling to invite a private, evangelical school with conservative values and a sometimes controversial chancellor. That left the Flames to chart their own course.

Read more: https://pilotonline.com/sports/columnist/harry-minium/c-usa-rejected-liberty-university-s-generous-offer-to-join/article_4aef1fa8-6614-58ea-97f4-25805187fa70.html