College Football News released their annual Hoops & Helmets ranking on Tuesday, and the Liberty Flames ranked No. 16 among the 130 FBS teams.
The ranking takes all FBS teams and looks at their final results in both football and basketball to determine the ranking. The different categories are: Losers in Both Sports, No Post-Season But…, All Buckets No Helmets, Bowls No Buckets, and Bowls and Buckets.
With the Flames advancing to the Cure Bowl and winning the program’s first ever bowl game as well as winning the ASUN Tournament for a second consecutive season, Liberty comes in among the top groups.
Liberty ranked ahead of a number of common opponents – UMass, Vanderbilt, New Mexico, Syracuse, New Mexico St, Akron, Rutgers, Louisiana, Georgia Southern, and BYU.
The Flames also ranked among peers like Old Dominion, East Carolina, Coastal Carolina, TCU, UConn, Charlotte, Virginia Tech, Appalachian State, and Boise State.
There were also several nationally prominent programs Liberty came in ahead of – Nebraska, Ole Miss, UCLA, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Notre Dame, Florida State, Michigan, and USC.
Coming in at 16 is Liberty’s highest ranking ever, as the Flames checked in at No. 82 in 2019, the first time Liberty was included in the ranking as an FBS member.
There were only 29 teams who checked into the highest ranking of Bowls and Buckets, including the Flames.
The top 15 from 15 to 1 was – Memphis, Clemson, Auburn, Kentucky, Virginia, Cincinnati, Florida, Penn State, Oklahoma, Ohio State, San Diego State, Wisconsin, Baylor, LSU, and Oregon.
