The way too early bowl projections continue to be published. The Liberty Flames are viewed as one of the top non Power Five teams in the country, so anything less than a bowl appearance and flirting with the top 25 all season feels like a letdown.
Pro Football Network has released their preseason bowl projections and they have the Flames playing in what they describe as a “mouthwatering matchup” in the New Mexico Bowl against Mountain West favorite Nevada. The Malik Willis vs Carson Strong storyline will add some spice to this matchup.
This year, the New Mexico Bowl is scheduled for December 18, 2021 at 12:15 PM Eastern Time. It is played at Dreamstyle Stadium on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the 2020 New Mexico Bowl, Hawaii defeated Houston, 28-14, on December 24. The bowl is owned and operated by ESPN Events and is televised by ESPN. It is one of several bowls Liberty has a secondary bowl agreement with ESPN for the upcoming season.
Previous early bowl projections this summer have had Liberty paired with Wyoming in the New Mexico Bowl and facing UCF in the Boca Raton Bowl. Both the Boca Raton Bowl and the New Mexico Bowl are included in Liberty’s agreement with ESPN. Other bowl games Liberty and ESPN have secondary bowl agreements with include the Camellia Bowl, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl, and Myrtle Beach Bowl.
Liberty is coming off a record campaign in 2020 when the Flames finished 10-1 following the team’s dramatic bowl win over Coastal Carolina in the Cure Bowl. The Flames also picked up the program’s first ever wins over an ACC opponent when Liberty defeated Syracuse and Virginia Tech. Those two wins made Liberty the first non-Power Five team to post a pair of wins over ACC schools in the same season since Houston did so in 2015. Liberty finished the 2020 season ranked No. 17 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and No. 18 in the Amway Coaches Poll, the highest ever ranking for the Flames as an FBS program.
Liberty will open the 2021 season at home on Sept. 4 against Campbell. The Flames will host five more home games throughout the season: Old Dominion (Sept. 18), Middle Tennessee (Oct. 9), UMass (Oct. 30), Louisiana (Nov. 20), and Army (Nov. 27).
