The No. 8 Oregon Ducks will bring in the New Year set to face the No. 23 Liberty Flames in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl.

The Ducks (11-2) had always hoped to be playing on New Year's Day, but in one of the College Football Playoff semifinal games, not the Fiesta Bowl. Two losses to Washington, one in the regular season and the other in the Pac-12 title game, crushed that hope. Nonetheless, this will be the Ducks' third trip to a New Year's Six bowl in the last five years. It will also be Oregon football's fourth trip to Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl where they are 2-1.

For the Flames (13-0), this will be their first-ever appearance in a NY6 bowl and their fifth bowl game appearance overall since becoming a member of the FBS. They're 3-1 overall. This season, Liberty football moved from independent to Conference USA under first-year head coach Jamey Chadwell, winning the conference title. They, therefore, were the lucky Group-of-Five team this season to earn a right to a NY6 bowl game. They're also just one of four teams in the FBS that are undefeated, although they didn't play a single Power-5 team all year.

As a Group-of-Five team, Liberty is coming in as over a two-plus touchdown underdog to an all-around massively talented Oregon team that will look to be ending their season on a high note. But could the Ducks overlook the Flames and let them make the biggest upset of the entire bowl season? Let's get into some Vrbo Fiesta Bowl bold predictions.

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Oregon's defense holds Liberty to under 30 points

Liberty football is coming into the Fiesta Bowl averaging 40.8 points per game as an offense, ranking 5th best in the country. But they'll be facing the 11th ranked scoring defense in the country when they face the Ducks, who are allowing only 17.3 points per game.

In Dan Lanning's two seasons as Oregon football's head coach, the Ducks have allowed 30 or more points six times, with one of those being the opener against the eventual national champions in Georgia last season, with three others against rival Washington; five resulted in losses.

We've seen these Group-of-Five teams come in before and surprise people, but scoring over 30 against this Oregon football team doesn't seem realistic.

Liberty's scoring won't come in the red zone

One reason that the Flames may be held to less scoring is the fact that they aren't the best team inside the red zone. They rank 75th in the nation in red zone scoring percentage (82.81%). If the Flames have hope to score, they better stick to the 20 and beyond. They'll be attempting to do that with their talented backfield in running back Quinton Cooley and quarterback Kaidon Salter, who accounted for over 2,000 rushing yards combined this season.

Bo Nix is out of the game by the middle of the third quarter, if not sooner

Bo Nix

Bo Nix is one of the few quarterbacks that are headed to the NFL Draft that decided not to opt-out of their respective bowl games. But should the Ducks handle the Flames like most believe they will, it's doubtful that Nix plays the entire game. If Oregon is up by three scores or more midway through the third quarter, Nix's time as a Duck will have come to an end.

Oregon football beats Liberty by at least 20 points

Maybe this isn't giving Liberty football enough credit or giving Oregon too much credit. Either way, this seems like a pretty massive mismatch. Although the Flames are undefeated, they faced just five bowl-eligible teams, with three of those having double-digit wins, including bowl games. But not a single one of those were in the Power-5.

However, the one thing going for Liberty is the fact that in the College Football Playoff era, Group-of-Five teams are 4-5 in NY6 bowls. Tulane was the latest, beating USC in last year's Cotton Bowl. This year's Oregon team didn't let too much get past them, losing to only one team twice. They should be able to handle Liberty in the Fiesta Bowl.