Coastal Carolina–Liberty football rivalry

The two teams met for the first time in Lynchburg, VA at the home of Liberty University. This was the first year that Coastal Carolina fielded a football team. Liberty was in their second year in a FCS conference. At least a share of the conference title was won by one of the two schools nine times between the years 2004 – 2014 (2011 was won by Stony Brook outright). They shared the title 2010, 2012-2014.

With Coastal leading the series by one game, Liberty was looking to even it up on the road. Liberty blocked what could have been a winning field goal for Coastal. This win against a previously undefeated, FCS ranked team on the road clinched Liberty's first bid to a FCS playoff.

In their first year as a FCS independent school, the Chanticleers kept a few of their former conference foes on the schedule. The Flames last game of the regular season was played South Carolina, as the Flames suffered their worst loss (35pts) in this rivalry.

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, many teams had games cancelled. The Chanticleers and Flames were to meet up for a game on December 5th in South Carolina reviving a rivalry, as both had holes in their schedules. [2] Including from this game, the schools are scheduled to play each other five times between 2023 and 2030.[3] ESPN was scheduled to broadcast College GameDay between the 25th ranked and one loss Flames against the undefeated 14th ranked Chanticleers. This was to be the first meeting between these former FCS conference foes as FBS teams. A few days before the game, Liberty had to back out due to COVID-19 issues with their team. This allowed BYU to fill the slot matching two undefeated teams in what was called by some Mormons vs. Mullets.

The two teams did finally get to meet a few weeks later in the 2020 edition of the Cure Bowl. This was the first time the Chanticleers were in an FBS bowl game. This was the second straight year for the Flames. The Chanticleers head coach stated that the importance of the game “means more than the Sun Belt Championship to a lot of people” [4] The Flame were able to prevent the Chanticleers from having an undefeated season by blocking a punt that would have sent the game into double overtime.[5]