Liberty University hires former Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw
Yes, the same Ian McCaw who allowed Baylor to become the scandal ridden Baylor it was. This is a guy who shouldn't be allowed near an Athletic Department and now he's leading Liberty, which is currently in a similar state that Baylor was when he arrived there. Lots and lots of money to spend with this guy at the helm is a NCAA or legal scandal waiting to happen.
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Take a moment to let this one sink in:
....wow....
It's like we're Sergeant Angel here
Avoiding the political as much as I can, let's just say that I'm not too surprised with this given some of the other choices he's made recently. The first couple years after he took over my Alma Mater I was pretty happy with the job he was doing, but the past year or so I've been very disappointed in pretty much everything that's come directly from Jerry, JR.
They're so desperate to move to FBS they've sold out their morals for it. Unreal.
What morals? Have you ever heard of Jerry Falwell Jr.?
He has dollar signs instead of pupils...
It's all's well with Falwell$
Sort of reminds me of Maryland moving to the Big 10.
Jerry Sr. is rolling over in his grave right now...
In excitement? This seems right up his alley
...wow, didn't see that one coming. Talk about being truly, horribly desperate. Unreal.
It's good to see that the university has its students (especially the female ones) best interest in mind.
What an embarrassing hire! I hope Whit finds a way to null and void all of our future contracts with this disgraceful school.
Any good upstanding female student already has found a husband to protect her early in her college career at Liberty /s
#RingBySpring /s
General comment here:
Taking the university to task for this sleazeball move is one thing, let's not get into the habit of mocking its students or buying into stereotypes.
Save that for UVA, because screw those guys. #13straight
So it's OK to mock UVA students but not Liberty students? Not trying to be argumentative, just genuinely curious.
Also, I didn't mean for it to be offensive in any way towards their students. Just simply as a joke similar (for example) to how we mock UVA students for calling it "grounds" or what have you.
The UVA thing was just a joke.
My post was not intended to call you out, but I know the subject of age/marriage/morals gets touchy for some people. Poking a little fun is one thing, but I sense that things can easily get out of control if I didn't say something. I chose to do it here, as a general comment.
OK, thanks for the clarification! My post was certainly not intended to ruffle any feathers, but I do see your point that it could have. #bestmoderatoraround
Fuck Liberty.
But uhh...
Typically isn't liberty a good thing??
Blinks audibly...
The man got another job, ever???
Falwell is really building a two-faced reputation with the people he endorses/supports and his supposed level of morality.
Haven't the Falwells been doing that for years? It isn't like Sr. was all that different.
As far as I know, Falwell Sr. was a pretty moral guy.
My grandfather once said "If Falwell's going to heaven, I don't want to be there."
I can't remember all of the specifics about Sr., other than when he came up with the absurd idea that the Teletubbies were gay.
But what I've seen Jr. do, compared to his dad, you can't even call it lip service.
Living in Lynchburg I've heard Sr. got all his money to start LBC and TRBC from moonshine. They said one of their stills used to be at the bottom of the hill near the VDOT office I used to work at.
yes, the Falwell clan used to be bootleggers. He saw the college and the church as a way to use what was intended for evil for good.
He was moral in the sense that he was very vocal about his own morality while doing and saying some pretty vile stuff.
Give me Liberty, or give me NCAA sanctions
If I were a female athlete there, I'd take the sanctions.
If I were a female athlete there, I'd immediately demand a release from my scholarship.
Seriously Liberty. Go home, you drunk.
Liberty is an odd place. The Falwell family's ethics and morality are questionable, at best.
I'm not sure how people can go there seeking a good technical and religious educational experience when they look at the history of the Falwell family. I mean the guy basically insulted his own students when they voiced their disagreement with him a few months ago.
Unfortunately, this just isn't a surprising move when you think about it. Falwell cares about Falwell and not much else.
Douche bags are having a good year.
Such another proud moment as a freaking Liberty Alum! /s I can't distance myself away from that school fast enough recently. That place won't get another pennny from me for anything as long as this horse's ass is in charge.
Exactly! Vote with your dollars because it's your only recourse.
Seeing a lot of comments here about Liberty/ the Falwells that definitely get close to being a political/religious discussion.
sure...but objectively, hiring the guy who was in charge when all that shit went down at Baylor legitimately raises eyebrows and that's the real focus here IMO
As a resident of the greater Lynchburg area,
Really! Same here. Just Counting the days tilla student pilot pile drives the new watch tower!
Hell yeah Lynchburg represent. Y'all been to Blaze Pizza yet? Might be one of my new favorite Lynchburg pizza places.
eh, I'll take Rivermont Pizza anyday.
Them, Blaze, and Waterstone are probably my top 3. Can't beat rivermont's beer selection.
have ya'll tried any of the new places downtown. (Waterdog, Bootleggers, Benny's Pizza, and that new bbq and bourbon place on federal)
Water dog is a great atmosphere (was there for ND, lots of Hokies gather there). But I wasn't impressed with the menu or the food. I'll give them another shot though since I was so focused and stressed about VT I couldn't enjoy anything. Haven't got to the others yet. I like to give it a few weeks so the Lynchburg rush calms down. People here love new restaurants.
Benny's is as you'd expect if you've been to the Blacksburg one, very solid.
I live part time downtown, just starting to hit all the good spots. El Jefe is awesome.
El Jefe is my wife and I's place to go for brunch. Such good food
ah blaze pizza as endorsed by patty swartz and the good ole boys at "the worst idea of all time"
It's kinda hard to talk about one and not at least toe the line on the other.
I get we don't want to get into political discussions, but Liberty often times finds itself in the middle of that arena. I haven't seen anyone turning this into a CNN story comment section yet.
As for religion...it's a Baptist School. It's gonna come up.
I hear that it's just that if anytime we bring up Liberty it delves into political/religion jokes or discussions then we just probably shouldn't bring them up. Just my opinion.
The whole issue is that there is inherent absurdity here. Liberty has policies (I have read, someone please correct me if I am wrong because I am getting this second-hand) that prohibit sex on campus between unmarried people as an extension of their religious/moral teachings. They just hired a guy that was complicit in covering up widespread sexual assault. We're not debating religion/politics per se (though I am on high alert whenever Liberty comes up because they inject themselves in a lot of hot-button issues) but pointing out what, on its face, is blatant hypocrisy, all in the name of furthering their athletics program.
It really is bad. I know a lot of people who attended or live near Lynchburg, and this just runs so opposite what they believe in. Just from a marketing and profit perspective, you can't market and brand your school as a high-moral Christian school and then fail to back that up with your actions. Its a great way to lose people and their money.
On a personal level, as someone who identifies as a Christian, it is really disappointing to see this. It is just so opposite of what it should be. Like, I get that people are capable of making mistakes and growing up and being better than before, but it makes me ashamed to be associated with the same faith. Which sucks a lot. Hypocrisy is just one of the suckiest things out there.
via GIPHY
BINGO BONGO! Agree on all parts!!!
It applies off campus too, that's why one of the first things I did after I graduated was rent V for Vendetta.
Their rules are available online, I knew what I was getting into when I went and thought the trade-off was worth it.
https://www.liberty.edu/media/1210/Student_Honor_Code.pdf
I've been told by multiple students that students of the med school are allowed to drink. It sounds like Liberty is letting their professional schools make their own decisions to an extent. There's been some rumors about the Law School laxing on this too. The new dean has taken some heat about it.
I don't mean for this to come off in a negative way as I am genuinely curious, but what did you feel that Liberty, who tries to even control what movies you watch, offered that another school couldn't?
I can't speak for him, but I went to a small religious private school growing up that hired the guy who tried to get a religious groundswell going that Harry Potter was satanic, and banned books and merchandise from school grounds. We had an honor code that we had to sign, and they very much tried to control your lives in and out of the classroom.
From my experience, while there were some who went into the clergy after the fact, the overbearing nature of the rules did nothing but teach everyone how to get away with whatever they were doing.
Sorry to take so long in replying, haven't been TKPing as much lately (Moved about a month ago and we're still doing little projects around the house and unpacking) so I missed your question originally.
The reasons at least partially involve religion and politics, but I'll try to keep everything as general as possible. I was a relatively new Christian (A little under 5 years) and wanted to be at a school with a strong Christian environment. Also my political views at the time aligned with the political viewpoint prominent at the school (still not too far from them, but they have since shifted towards the northern quadrant of the Nolan Chart).
While I didn't agree with all the rules, I didn't feel like they restricted me very much compared to how I already lived. I had always been slightly introverted, and was a bit of a homebody except for sports and other school related extra curricular activities, Boy Scouts, and church/youth group activities after I became a Christian. I didn't have a major problem with the movie restrictions as far as on campus went, while I could watch a lot of R rated movies without it bothering my conscience, there were people there for whom that wouldn't be true, so the rule, at least as applied on campus, helped to protect their consciences. If I were writing the rules I wouldn't have made it applicable off campus, but I can't think of any R rated movies that came out while I was there besides V for Vendetta that I really wanted to see. Also while the rules were more restrictive than the rules at most schools, there are schools that are even more restrictive; for example, on more than one occasion I heard students who had little or no problem with Liberty's rules refer to a certain school in Florida as Pensacola Christian Cult because of the strictness of the rules in place there.
One of the main things that I felt the school offered was a large Christian community where we were able to grow together in our faith, debate various topics (Ironically considering Alum07's comment, one of the debates I best remember was about the Harry Potter films/books and took place around 2 AM in the dorm hallway), and to just generally help each other along in our faith. There were also several classes that were part of the core curriculum that I enjoyed greatly that wouldn't have been available at other colleges, two that stood out to me were a class called Constitutional Government and Free Enterprise and our two GNED classes that mostly involved discussing contemporary ethics and issues. I also got to see a softer, more compassionate side of Jerry Falwell, Sr. than what was typically shown in the media whenever he made a controversial statement. Instead I got to see a grandfatherly figure who always sat in the same seat at Basketball games, waved to students as he drove around campus, and whose most frequent message to us whenever he spoke at convocation was encouraging us to "never ever quit" and to do our best to "finish our race well."
Other things that I really liked were the worship in the campus church services, having some really good speakers for convocation (my favorite was probably author Frank Peretti, I haven't read any of his books, but he was able to make insightful points in a very entertaining way), getting in to every sporting event I wanted to go to free without any waiting lists or lotteries (NCAA sports only, but not Club Sports) , there were usually at least 2 or 3 concerts a semester with various CCM artists, and I was introduced to comedians Tim Hawkins and Michael, Jr. when they did live shows on campus.
Also it's pretty cool to be one of less than 10,000 people in the world who can say that Chuck Norris was the commencement speaker when they graduated college.
For a university that claims to be a shining city on a hill, all I can say is
It's just a mirage. Only thing shiny there lately is all the new toys Jr gets to plays with all the money the online program brings in
Just heard a rumor he is thinking about turning Liberty into a For-Profit school. There would be a lot more money for him to play with personally if that comes to fruition.
Another black mark on my hometown
Well, at least we get a picture at where Liberty thinks they want their sports programs going.
Good god this is bad. I can't even begin to imagine what made them think this is a good choice.
$$$
"John 3:16 says its all about the benjamins, baby."- Jerry Falwell Jr
Truly disgusting move.
Way too many almost political comments on this thread, yikes... HOW ABOUT THEM HOKIES? HOW ABOUT THEM COMMODORES?
So does that mean all the girls transferring out?
This thread, the UVA qb thread, and the attrition thread...is it the middle of the off season? We just made the ACCCG and these are the threads we have up here. We had more to talk about VT football related and interesting off topic related when WE WERE MEDIOCRE than we do now!
Uhhh this is a pretty darn big current event for a school that is in close proximity to the majority of the fan base as well as some people attended. This guy should never be allowed near an
athletic departmentacademic institution ever again nor should anyone want him near them.^This. I come to this site in hopes that something like this is brought up. This is massive news in the world of college sports. Even more importantly its happening in our state.
What's even better about this site is that it is generally and mostly discussed in a civil and intelligent manner. You can't find that anywhere else.
As the parent of a Liberty graduate and someone who knows many Liberty families, I am shocked at the tone deafness and general absurdity of this move by Liberty.
It just smells like cronyism and hubris. Seriously disappointed by this development.
just so we're hearing both sides:
If this is to be believed, than Liberty thought it was a good hire in the long run was was OK with weathering the incredibly poor optics in the short term. I don't necessarily agree, but they did get a guy with a good resume with the "tainted by Baylor" discount.
Which would make sense if it became clear that he had no part in what happened at Baylor, but just the opposite is true. He and his staff not only allowed the legitimate rape culture to form at Baylor, but it certainly looks like they emboldened players and staff into thinking the athletes were untouchable.
This is a man who should be barred from college campuses, not getting a cushy job at Liberty.
AND he asked for IMMUNITY. This isn't just a little mistake, this is a pattern.
I would like to see Whit remove Liberty from every future schedule for VT athletics. It's becoming increasingly hard to show my four girls how to grow up in this world and this is just another step in the wrong direction.
Wish I could give this more legs. I just have one daughter (4 year old), and I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to teach her to value herself in a world that seems to be going backwards in regards to that issue.
If anything, makes me appreciate the program that Frank built and the capable hands that are currently guiding our athletics (Whit, CJF, Buzz, etc)
I can teach her to value herself and love VT sports without having to contradict myself.
Don't like Liberty U, not one bit. This doesn't help