After an undefeated regular season and a Conference USA championship, the Liberty Flames are headed to the New Years Six. On Sunday, the Flames were revealed by the College Football Playoff selection committee to be the #23 team in the nation and the highest ranked G5 team, ahead of #24 SMU.
Liberty have had an average margin of victory of 17 points this year. It's a monumental achievement for a program that just entered FBS in 2018 with a coach that just got there and a group of players that had a lot to prove.
However, a significant contingency of fans believed that SMU should have received the bid, with the 10-2 AAC champion Mustangs only losing to Power Five teams.
It wasn't the only controversy presented by the CFP committee's rankings released on Sunday. 13-0 ACC champion Florida State were left out of the top four and the CFP semifinals, leap frogged by an Alabama team and a Texas team with a loss on their resumes.
We can't do a one-to-one comparison of the year Florida State has had to the year Liberty has had. That's why there are 18 rankings in between them. However, Liberty receiving their respective ultimate reward for going undefeated while undefeated Florida State was snubbed for theirs raised some eyebrows. I asked Boo Corrigan about that on Sunday night.
What do you say to people that say you rewarded Liberty for going undefeated despite the strength of schedule that you mentioned and did the opposite for someone like Florida State?
CORRIGAN: "Well, again, everything is -- we don't look at it as compare one to another, between No. 5 and No. 23. Not to take away from what Liberty did this year and the job that they played. They can only play the people that are on their schedule. They were dominant on the field, as I said before. They were 5-0 against teams above .500. Again, Florida State, great year. Really hard for everyone down there, but the injury to Jordan Travis is something that in the eyes of the committee changed them as a team. Rodemaker and Brock Glenn came in, but they're a different team with Jordan Travis on the field."
It's not a particularly compelling answer, but it's an answer.
Liberty continue their historic campaign against the Oregon Ducks in the Fiesta Bowl on January 1.
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