The 2025 college football season is getting closer by the day as we are just about 6 weeks from the season beginning and even less than that from the start of training camp.
Several outlets have released their preseason bowl projections and we have assembled those projections for where Liberty is being pegged.
- Brad Crawford (247Sports): Hawaii Bowl vs Air Force
- Athlon Sports: New Orleans Bowl vs Louisiana
- Pro Football Network: New Orleans Bowl vs Georgia Southern
- CBS Sports: Hawaii Bowl vs Air Force
The Flames are looking to recapture some of the magic from the 2023 CUSA Championship team while getting back to another bowl game. The Flames finished the 2024 campaign with an 8-4 record that included a loss to Buffalo in the Bahamas Bowl. It marked a sixth straight appearance in a bowl game, and Liberty has now won eight or more games for the 16th season in program history, including six straight years. Liberty will open the 2025 season on Saturday, Aug. 30 against Maine at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia.
As for bowl tie-ins, first off, the Conference USA champion will be in the mix for a spot in the expanded College Football Playoff. If the CUSA champ is the highest ranked Group of Five champion it will receive an automatic berth into the 12-team CFP. For the rest of the bowls, CUSA doesn’t have a true pecking order of bowl picks. Instead, the bowls are picked based off a number of factors including geography and best possible matchups.
Here are the bowls where Conference USA has a primary selection:
Bahamas Bowl
Nassau, Bahamas vs MAC
New Orleans Bowl
New Orleans, Louisiana vs Sun Belt
Frisco Bowl
Frisco, Texas vs G5 TBD
Hawaii Bowl
Honolulu, Hawaii vs Mountain West
If CUSA has additional bowl eligible teams, there are also a number of bowls where CUSA teams can be selected as a secondary team:
68 Ventures Bowl vs MAC or Sun Belt
Birmingham Bowl vs AAC or SEC
Boca Raton Bowl vs G5
Camellia Bowl vs MAC or Sun Belt
Cure Bowl vs G5
Fenway Bowl vs AAC or AAC
Gasparilla Bowl vs ACC, AAC, SEC
Armed Forces Bowl vs AAC
Myrtle Beach Bowl vs AAC, MAC or Sun Belt
New Mexico Bowl vs Mountain West
Independence Bowl vs Army or Big 12
First Responder Bowl vs G5
Liberty’s bowl history (3-3)
2019: Cure Bowl, W vs Georgia Southern, 23-16
2020: Cure Bowl, W vs #12 Coastal Carolina, 37-34 OT
2021: LendingTree Bowl, W vs Eastern Michigan, 56-20
2022: Boca Raton Bowl, L vs Toledo, 21-19
2023: Fiesta Bowl, L vs #8 Oregon, 45-6
2024: Bahamas Bowl, L vs Buffalo, 26-7


