Liberty University Football: Making the Transition to Division 1

This is a story of leadership and organizational change.

How does an institution plan for the growth and development of its programs? What are the roles of the leadership and stakeholders? What process should drive the analysis and decision making? How is risk assessed? How is the planning and potential for change communicated?

In multistakeholder organizations like universities and non-profits, these decisions require a steady and strategic leader capable of assessing the most impactful direction for its programs, and then how these high performers can remain part of the organization’s portfolio.

Increasingly, university athletics departments, the current institutional high performer by choice or circumstance, often finds itself in the realignment business as they strive to increase revenue and reputation. Here is one such story.