Breaking down Liberty’s chances at the Cure Bowl or another bowl

Liberty has a secondary bowl agreement with the Cure Bowl this year. It’s the only bowl agreement the Flames have currently and is therefore the most likely bowl destination if Liberty gets one more win this season to become bowl eligible.

The Cure Bowl is played on December 21st at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida. It’s primary agreement is with a team from the American Athletic Conference and the Sun Belt Conference. There’s no true pecking order for either league, as bowl matchups are based on the best possible games and geography.

The AAC has 7 bowl tie ins while the Sun Belt has 5. The AAC already has 6 teams that have reached bowl eligibility. A seventh, Temple, should get there while South Florida has a chance to reach the needed 6 wins.

The AAC also has a very good chance to get its league champion into a New Year’s Six Bowl as the highest ranked champion from a Group of 5 conference will get an automatic bid into a New Year’s Six Bowl. UCF, Cincinatti, Memphis, and SMU are all currently ranked in the AP Top 25.

The Sun Belt has 3 teams already eligible while Arkansas State and Georgia Southern should both reach bowl eligibility, to get the league to 5, and Coastal Carolina has a chance to become bowl eligible.

If the Flames are bowl eligible and the Cure Bowl does not end up the destination, Liberty could still end up at a number of destinations, as we’ve seen in recent bowl projections. In addition to the Cure Bowl, we’ve seen analysts project the Flames into the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl, Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl, Quick Lane Bowl, Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl, Belk Bowl, AutoZone Liberty Bowl, and Birmingham Bowl.

There are 39 bowl games this year, equating to 78 bowl slots. There are currently 42 teams that have already become bowl eligible. ESPN’s FPI currently projects 71 teams to win at least 6 games and reach bowl eligibility, including Liberty. If there aren’t enough bowl eligible teams to fill all the slots and the Flames are eligible, Liberty will find its way into a bowl game.