Sorry but you got your facts wrong on this one. As with every year, we had some money games this year--and i mean money paid to Furman. This was one of those.
OK, but that's a completely different point than saying we paid to play Villanova. I'm sure a lot of coaches at the mid- and low-major level have to hustle to get big games on the schedule. We can't all be Duke that handpicks its games every year. Good on BR for finding that game, and even better for winning it. I hope we pick off a team every year in the same fashion.
Liberty is actually the automatic bid from the A-Sun. The bubble team in that conference is Lipscomb, whom Lunardi now has "next four out."