Palsgrove’s Points – Liberty Football vs App State

We need to talk about the Appalachian State game. If you follow Liberty University Football, you should know that the Flames had a game scheduled against the Mountaineers that was meant to take place Saturday in Boone, North Carolina.  

The game was cancelled due to the absolute havoc that Hurricane Helene wreaked across App State’s beautiful mountain town, and before we go any further, the town needs our prayers and our support. The flooding and the carnage are not things to joke about or to brush off. Families have been uprooted by the storm.  

Now, this is a sports column, and I will be discussing the ramifications of the cancellation for the Flames and their schedule, but first I need to rant.  

Flames nation — I am so ticked.  

Trash talk, rivalry and nastiness are a part of sports. They always have been and always will be. If I don’t get made fun of by my friends when my team plays badly, I start to worry about those friends. So, when App State and Liberty chose to cancel their game, seemingly at the behest of the hosts, Flames fans and Flames junior quarterback Kaidon Salter (who immediately apologized, to his credit) responded how most fans would in this scenario. They made fun of the Mountaineers and claimed that App State was “ducking” the Flames by not playing them.  

Again, that kind of internet slander is normal, but what wasn’t normal or Christlike was what came after. Videos and photos started to roll in off the waves of the internet and showed just how bad the situation in Boone was, and how did Flames fans respond? We, as a collective, doubled down.  

I don’t know what the whole story is regarding the cancellation, and I’m not going to speculate about who did what to get this game moved, or anything of the sort — it doesn’t matter. App State cancelled the game because of the likelihood that its hometown, its stadium and all its infrastructure could be underwater. But Flames fans, instead of showing the love of Christ, chose to repost sources claiming App State was avoiding the game with the Flames, or get into social media fights with fuming Mountaineers fans.  

What happened between the schools doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that I kept watching Flames fans on my X feed get into internet fist fights with a fanbase whose town was underwater, refusing to back down. We are supposed to be better than that. Act like it.  

Ok, let’s move on — what now?  

The game is cancelled. Let’s move past it and talk about what exactly happens next. According to Ian McCaw, Liberty’s director of athletics, the Flames are looking to replace this game with another to fill out their schedule with 12 total games. If Liberty doesn’t find a 12th game, it could damage the university’s odds of being voted in as the 12th member of the College Football Playoff, which has been the team’s goal since the revised format was finalized and enacted this season.  

The Flames have a weak schedule, mainly due to their conference, so making the playoff is already an uphill battle, and that hill gets even steeper if the Flames don’t play the same number of games as the other five teams that are vying for the spot.  

Cancelling the App State game hurts because the Mountaineers were arguably the most difficult opponent on Liberty’s schedule, so now the Flames are going to have to find a team to replace them that can provide the same challenge and boost their odds of making the playoffs.  

So, the Flames have to find a team that can work with their schedule and give them a real challenge. That’s no easy feat, but it’s possible. We’ll see what happens.  

Palsgrove is the sports editor for the Liberty Champion. Follow him on X.