The 2024 football season will be the first of its kind with an expanded 12 team playoff.
Five of those 12 spots will be awarded to the highest ranked conference champion with the top four receiving a bye into the quarterfinals. It is assumed that the top four ranked conference champions will be from the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and ACC. That would leave the Group of Five Conferences – CUSA, Sun Belt, American, MAC, Mountain West – fighting to have its league champ be the highest ranked to claim that coveted fifth automatic bid.
Under the previous format, the highest ranked G5 conference champ was guaranteed a spot in a New Year’s Six Bowl but was not assured a spot in the four-team College Football Playoff. In the 10-year history of the four team CFP, only one G5 team ever reached the playoffs – Cincinnati who was the 4-seed in 2022. Now, at least in theory, every team at the FBS level that is eligible for their conference championship has a path to reaching the playoffs and playing for a national championship.
Following their 13-1 season and appearance in the Fiesta Bowl in 2023, Liberty is currently the betting favorite to be the highest ranked G5 Champ and reach the playoffs this fall. Of course, that is before a single football game has been played, but the Flames are in the discussion.
“I do love, not only ourself, but any other team that’s at our level if they have a good year, they have a chance to be one of the 12 teams,” said Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell last week as the Flames prepared to open training camp. “That’s pretty cool.”
For Chadwell and his team, he doesn’t want the focus to be on reaching the playoffs. Instead, he wants his team to pursue being the best they can, beginning with each day during training camp.
“I think, one, it’s awesome to have that opportunity,” explained Chadwell of the path for G5 teams to reach the CFP. “You have 12 teams that get the chance to play for a national championship. So, if you are one of those 12, that is a special deal. On the other hand, as a coach, I don’t like that outside influence to where you’ve got to do this and that to get there. I don’t want our guys to focus on that. I want our guys to be pursuing the right things. If we are pursuing only (reaching the CFP), then we are going to not accomplish it because we are going to lose sight of what it takes to get there.
That was the mindset Chadwell and the Flames had in 2023, their first together and first in Conference USA. With the coaching change and so much roster turnover, expectations were not high on Liberty having a season worthy of national consideration. Yet, they focused on the task at hand, took each week’s challenge, and achieved monumental success for a relatively new FBS program.
“We want to make sure they are focused on Liberty and what we need to do to be our best,” said Chadwell. “That’s our whole premise of everything. Every week is about being the best Liberty on that Saturday or on that Wednesday or that Tuesday. Can we be the best version of ourself? If we are, we’re going to celebrate it as much as we can because it’s hard to do.”
Expectations are higher than ever for the Liberty football team. How they respond to those expectations will go a long way in determining the outcome of the upcoming season. Playing a schedule that is expected to be one of the worst in the country in terms of strength of schedule, the Flames will be judged critically each and every week. Chadwell hopes he and his team can stay in their lane, not focus on the outside noise, and attack each day as it comes
“That helps us focus on what we can control because we can’t control if we go undefeated and somebody else thinks this team is better than us,” said Chadwell. “But we can control every time we’re out there. Hopefully, this group will buy into that as much as the last one did.”
