The Liberty Flames are going bowling once again!

For a sixth consecutive season the Flames have become bowl eligible and will continue their season into a bowl game. Liberty (8-3) has accepted an invitation to the Bahamas Bowl where the Flames will take on Buffalo (8-4). Brett McMurphy was first to report this matchup.

The Bahamas Bowl from Nassau, Bahamas will be played on Saturday, Jan. 4 at 11 a.m. and televised live on ESPN.

The Bahamas Bowl is played at Thomas A. Robinson Stadium in Nassau, which was undergoing renovations last year in advance of the recently completed World Athletics Relays track and field competition. That event attracted top athletes from around the world in their final qualifying push for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Because of that construction, last year’s Bahamas Bowl was temporarily moved to Jerry Richardson Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. This edition was known as the Famous Toastery Bowl with Western Kentucky battling back from a 28-0 deficit to defeat Old Dominion, 38-35, in overtime.

This year’s Bahamas Bowl marks the first time the bowl has been played in January and the first time the game has been played on a Saturday. This will also mark Liberty’s second straight year competing in a January bowl game. The Bahamas Bowl is the only college football game scheduled for January 4th.

Conference USA teams are 5-3 all-time in the Bahamas Bowl, a game that traditionally features a team from CUSA and a team from the MAC.

The Buffalo Bulls finished the 2024 season with an 8-4 record and 6-2 mark, finishing 3rd in the MAC. Their losses came to Missouri, UConn, Western Michigan, and Ohio. The only common opponent with Liberty is UMass. Buffalo defeated the Minutemen, 34-3, on Sept. 14 while the Flames defeated UMass, 35-34, in overtime on Nov. 16.

Pete Lembo is in his first year as head coach at Buffalo. He has previous stints as assistant head coach and special teams coordinator at Maryland, Rice, Memphis, and, most recently, South Carolina.

Liberty is 3-0 all-time against Buffalo. The two teams meet last September in Buffalo with Liberty picking up the win, 55-27. In the only other meeting between the two programs at the FBS level, Liberty defeated Buffalo, 35-17, in Lynchburg on Sept. 14, 2019.

Liberty finished the 2024 season with an 8-3 overall record and 5-3 mark in CUSA play. The Flames came just one win short of reaching the CUSA Championship game for a second consecutive season. The Flames are aiming to win a 9th game this season, which would mark the second straight season with 9 or more wins, something the program has never done before.

Previous Liberty bowl games and results:
2019: Cure Bowl – W, 23-16 vs Georgia Southern
2020: Cure Bowl – W, 37-34 Coastal Carolina
2021: LendingTree Bowl – W, 56-20 Eastern Michigan
2022: Boca Raton Bowl – L, 21-19 Toledo
2023: Fiesta Bowl – L, 45-6 Oregon