Discussions about win totals and projections for the upcoming college football season usually lead to bowl game projections. While it is still very early, it gives you an idea of where analysts think teams stand. 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.
Athlon Sports has their way too early bowl projections out and they have a new destination for the Flames.
New Mexico Bowl vs Wyoming
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 New Mexico Bowl is one of several bowl games Liberty has an agreement with ESPN Events for. Other bowl games Liberty and ESPN have secondary bowl agreements with include the Boca Raton Bowl, 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).
