Home Liberty Athletics moving to Conference USA in 2023
Sports News

Liberty Athletics moving to Conference USA in 2023

Contributors

liberty basketballLiberty announced a new direction for its athletics department earlier today, as conference membership for its athletics programs will move to Conference USA, starting with the 2023-2024 athletics season.

Conference USA will be the all-sports conference for Liberty Athletics, including the Flames’ football team that has competed as an FBS independent program since moving up to the FBS level in 2018.

Along with Liberty, Conference USA announced the addition of three other new members this afternoon: Jacksonville State University (Jacksonville, Ala.), New Mexico State University (Las Cruces, N.M.) and Sam Houston State University (Huntsville, Texas).

Liberty enters Conference USA on the heels of its most successful year in athletics department history.

Liberty finished the 2020-2021 athletics season with an overall winning percentage of 70.5 percent (220-90-7), while winning 10 conference championships and a bowl game.

Football had a season of “firsts” in 2020, including the team’s first-ever national ranking, first win over an ACC opponent, the best start in school history (8-0 to start 2020), first-ever win over a top-25 FBS program and back-to-back bowl game wins.

The Flames finished the season with a 10-1 record, tying the program’s record for wins in a season (Liberty finished the 2008 season with a 10-2 record).

With the Cure Bowl win over its former Big South rival Coastal Carolina, Liberty became the second transitioning team in NCAA history to win consecutive bowl games during its first two full seasons at the FBS level.

During the 2020-2021 season, Liberty claimed conference titles in men’s basketball, men’s golf, men’s indoor track & field, men’s outdoor track & field, men’s tennis, softball, women’s cross country, women’s outdoor track & field, women’s soccer and women’s swimming & diving.

Liberty’s move to Conference USA marks the third athletics conference for the Flames since moving up to the NCAA Division I level in 1988.

Liberty was a member of the Big South Conference for 27 years (1991-2018), where the Flames claimed a conference record 13 Big South Sasser Cup trophies, an annual award given to the conference’s most successful athletics program.

During its time in the Big South, Liberty’s programs claimed 146 championships. Additionally, all six of Liberty NCAA Division I individual national champions were captured while the Flames were members of the Big South: Heather Sagan (2002 Indoor Mile), Josh McDougal (2017 Men’s Cross Country), Sam Chelanga (2009 Men’s Cross Country, 2010 Men’s Cross Country, 2010 Outdoor 10,000 meters, 2011 Indoor 5,000 meters).

For the last three seasons, 17 of Liberty’s 20 NCAA Division I athletics programs have found a conference home as a member of the ASUN Conference (Football – FBS independent; Field Hockey – BIG EAST Conference; Women’s Swimming & Diving – Coastal Collegiate Sports Association).

Since joining the ASUN Conference, Liberty’s athletics teams have won 20 conference championships.

Contributors

Contributors

Have a guest column, letter to the editor, story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.