Ever since Liberty made the move to the ranks of an FBS Independent, one of the big questions has been – who are Liberty’s rivals?

There are several teams that could fit into that category, and maybe the best way is to track who Liberty is recruiting against.

This can identify potential rivals as well as point to what Liberty’s program could look like in the future with multiple FBS recruiting classes piled on top of each other. If the Flames are consistently recruiting against Power Five opponents, then it makes sense that the program could rise to that level. But if Liberty is recruiting against mainly the FCS upper tier and worst teams in the FBS, then that’s likely the team Liberty will have on the field.

For the class of 2021, Liberty has offered hundreds of prospects (you can track those here). We could compare the list of all the offers those prospects have received, but that would take too much time and it’s probably not very accurate. On that offer list, there are certainly some prospects that Liberty is no longer actively recruiting and there are others at the other end of the spectrum that have zero interest in the Flames.

To get a true gauge of who the Flames are actively recruiting against, its better to compare who makes Liberty’s top prospects finalists list. So, we have compiled all 2021 prospects that have released a finalist list of a top 12, top 10, top 8, etc. with Liberty included, and tabulated who has made those finalists lists with the Flames.

Here is whose name showed up most frequently on prospects’ finalists lists alongside Liberty:

  1. Coastal Carolina (12)
  2. Old Dominion (11)
  3. Appalachian State (9)
  4. Army (8)
  5. East Carolina, Temple (7)
  6. Georgia State, James Madison (6)

Liberty has a future series scheduled with Coastal Carolina (2023, 2024) and Appalachian State (2024, 2025), as well as a game against James Madison (2026). The Flames also have an ongoing series with Old Dominion (2021-2023) and Army (2021, 2025, 2026), but there are currently no games scheduled with East Carolina, Temple, or Georgia State.

Here are all the schools that showed up on finalists lists alongside Liberty for at least 2 prospects:

  • Air Force, Buffalo, Charlotte, FAU, FIU, Georgia Southern, Marshall, MTSU, Navy (5)
  • Ohio (4)
  • Bowling Green, Kansas, UMass, Richmond, Rutgers, Toledo, Virginia, William & Mary (3)
  • Akron, Boston College, Cincinnati, Delaware, Elon, Furman, Harvard, Indiana, Monmouth, New Hampshire, Ole Miss, Pitt, Rhode Island, South Alabama, Tennessee, Towson, Troy, UCF, Vanderbilt, Villanova, VMI, Wake Forest (2)