Liberty hoping to see updated SSAA rankings vault them into the top tie playoff bracket

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -Monday evening brought some very good news for the Liberty football program, it’s coaches, players and fans. The Sunshine State Athletic Association says it is re-working the final rankings for the top teams in its Atlantic Division. And that will very likely put Liberty in the top 8 and into the SSAA championship bracket instead of the consolation bracket.

Liberty was 9th in the rankings heading into last week’s play. And then knocked off previously undefeated Jay 29-28, while two teams ahead of the Bulldogs in those rankings lost. Yet when the final rankings came out over the weekend, they hadn’t changed. Liberty was still 9th as of Monday afternoon.

After a groundswell of support, which included many folks calling the SSAA’s Director of Football Zach Shank, the SSAA board met tonight and announced the Friday games will be factored in, and new rankings will come out today. Liberty head coach Gerald Tranquille says Shank told him he doesn’t know how many folks there are in Bristol, but he believes he heard from them all the past few days! And it wasn’t just Liberty fans coming to help the Dogs make their case!

“I’ve had coaches all across the state, you know, come to bat for us.” coach Tranquille told us during a Monday Zoom call. “I have some beat writers from Central Florida come to bat for us. Everybody feels like we deserve it. You know, even Coach Johns over at Freeport chimed in and said, nobody in the SSA has a more quality win than we do beating the undefeated Jay, who was, you know, one of the top teams independent. You know, we just want what we’ve earned. That’s all.”

Liberty could move as high as number four in the new rankings, as low as 6th, but either way they’d be in the top bracket. Cottondale at 8-0 was the three seed, Franklin at 8-2 was the four seed and both will remain top 8 no matter what. Those first round games are Friday.

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