What was once a short-lived New Years Eve tradition will now be played on a new date a bit earlier in the college football bowl schedule. The Liberty Bowl will be played this season on December 29. The last four seasons saw the game played on December 31. Kickoff is schedule for 1 p.m. local time in Memphis, Tennessee.
The bowl game moving up two days will give the game more room to breathe in the bowl schedule. As it stands now, the only other bowl game scheduled for December 29 is the AdVoCare Texas Bowl. December 31 has become more crowded by bigger, more notable bowl games with the new College Football Playoff format to debut this season. The Peach Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl will all be played on December 31 this season. Any one of those three games would have overshadowed the Liberty Bowl, and with all three being played on the same day it makes sense for the Liberty Bowl to find a new date to be played.
The Liberty Bowl will pit representatives from the SEC and Big 12 this season. The Big 12 is replacing Conference USA as a conference tie-in.