Think we will ever see them land in the big 12?

𝙊𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚.

Transformational renovation coming to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. pic.twitter.com/WGdvT0sze6

— Memphis Tigers (@TigersAthletics) May 12, 2022

Who is paying to renovate the Liberty Bowl? U of Memphis does not own it.

Please God no.

PartyBear said:

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Who is paying to renovate the Liberty Bowl? U of Memphis does not own it.

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The city and school are combining to fund it, similar to the TIF agreement between Baylor and Waco for the basketball arena.

This is alright but it's a short-term knee-jerk concession to realignment and essentially amounts to us renovating Floyd Casey instead of building McLane. It's a 2+ mile walk from campus to the stadium. A large contingent of their university decision-makers still want an on-campus stadium in the future, and throwing money at this reno puts a big damper on that.

If you thought Floyd Casey or Kyle Field were close to RR tracks, Liberty Bowl is less than 50 yards from the tracks, or roughly the same distance as the stadium at Texas St. If you went to the game in San Marcos last year and heard the train whistle blasted over the PA system every 20 minutes or so, you'd know that's not a good thing.

If the university is committing to renovate property it is renting, then that seems like a long term commitment to continue to play there.

They should be building new on campus.

This is their ploy to make it into the Big 12, though.

I guess I'm in the minority, but I think these renovation plans look pretty sweet. The Liberty Bowl has a ton of history, and it's an asset to the Memphis football program, if updated. A renovated Liberty Bowl will be a much better stadium than anything Memphis could afford to build on campus. You'd very likely be spending a lot more money to build something worse.

This isn't a Floyd Casey or Legion Field situation. An updated Liberty Bowl could actually be a really nice, modern stadium. And I think the UAB situation is pretty informative as to the type of stadium Memphis could expect to build on campus. And while UAB's new stadium is fine, I'd take the new look Liberty Bowl 100 times out of 100.

As for Memphis' eventual inclusion in the Big 12, I'm for that as well. I wanted Memphis and Boise added (in addition to the four selected) when expansion was being discussed. I think there's strength in numbers, and I'm a firm believer that any program that can compete consistently with G5 revenues and resources can do so at the P5 level. Both Memphis and especially Boise have proven to have some staying power through multiple coaches. I think they're two of few remaining G5 remaining programs with the commitment level and potential to add value to a quality power conference.

I think it's pretty cool.

Everything in college football now as we know it is short term...10 years or less when the final conference TV contracts are up...if they can shoe horn into this quasi conference for a few years and make a few bucks..it will more than pay off their investment in renovations.

I would add Memphis

Talent rich area - school would really get a bump from P5 affiliation - would also disrupt some SEC recruiting (similar to Cincy and B10)

Geographic bridge to Cincy / WVU and market expansion

Of course, I would've taken Memphis over UCF. I get the UCF angle - just think it is bizarrely isolated.