On Tuesday, September 1, 2015, Coastal Carolina announced they were joining an expanded Sun Belt Conference. The Chanticleers were the primary rival of the Liberty Flames at that time, and many expected LU to be the one to get that call to join the FBS and the Sun Belt.

This was the latest in a number of doors that shut on Liberty’s hopes to join the FBS, gutting the university leaders in Lynchburg. For Liberty fans, players, coaches, and administrators, years, even decades, of competing, winning, and lobbying to have a seat at the table seemed to be a waste of time, money and resources.

Until they weren’t.

Because on July 21, 2021, Brent Zwerneman from the Houston Chronicle broke the internet.

Texas and Oklahoma, the then flagship programs of the Big 12, had reached out to the SEC about joining the conference. The pair would go on to issue a joint statement that they intended to leave the Big 12 in 2025 and join the SEC, and were unanimously voted in just a few days after this news broke.

This news set off a rapid number of successive moves in conference realignment at the highest level of college athletics. Less than two months after the Texas and OU news dropped, the Big 12 officially invited BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF to the conference.

That chain reaction would ultimately lead to Liberty accepting an invitation to the Conference USA, officially announced November 5, 2021, beginning July 1, 2023.

That day has come, and Liberty has officially joined Conference USA and is a full member. The inaugural CUSA football season starts in just a few weeks when Liberty will kick off against Bowling Green in Lynchburg at 12 noon. The first CUSA game will be in Week 2 against New Mexico State.

Despite Liberty petitioning and winning an appeal to the NCAA to join the FBS as an Independent without an FBS conference invitation on February 16, 2017, the long path to an FBS conference home has finally ended.

This wasn’t due to one person, one group, or one event/moment in time. This happened over decades of games, different program’s successes, different coaches, thousands of players, and countless fans.

Liberty’s Story Begins

This all started when Liberty played their first ever collegiate football game. Prior to being Liberty University, they were Lynchburg Baptist College, founded by Jerry Falwell, Sr. in 1971 and played its first season in 1973. Playing as a member of the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association (NCCAA), now Liberty’s first game was played against Massanutten Military Academy, losing, 42-32, on September 27, 1973. The program’s first ever win came about a month later, on October 25, 1973, defeating Ferrum College, 29-7.

Shortly after the conclusion of the first football season, the first head coach, Lee “Rock” Royer died tragically in a plane crash. John Cartwright, an assistant coach on Royer’s staff, was named the program’s second head football coach. The first winning season came in 1974, the second year for the program and first under Coach Cartwright.

In 1975, Lynchburg Baptist College was renamed Liberty Baptist College and the school colors were changed from green and gold to red, white, and blue. The Flames also joined the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and played its first full varsity schedule.

Tom Dowling became the program’s third head coach, taking over for the 1977 season. Just a couple of years later, Liberty finished with a 9-1-1 record during 1979, by far the best record for the team in its first decade of existence.

In the early 80s, Liberty joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, playing its first ever NCAA I-AA (now FCS) opponent, James Madison, falling to the Dukes, 30-14, on October 11, 1980. The first win over a I-AA team came against Morehead State, 23-20, on Nov. 8, 1980.

In 1983, Liberty became a full member of the NCAA Division II level, being accepted as a member of the East Coast Athletic Conference. Morgan Hout became the fourth head football coach in the school’s history in 1984, and Liberty Baptist College was renamed Liberty University in 1985.

On May 1, 1985, wide receiver Fred Banks became the first player in program history to be selected in the NFL Draft. He was taken by the Cleveland Browns in the eighth round, later making the Browns’ roster to also become the first Liberty player to ever make an NFL roster.

Tragedy struck on November 6, 1985 when Treasure Island, the Flames’ practice facility was washed away in a flood. It caused the team to cancel the remainder of the season and most of the program’s equipment was also lost.

The Move to Division I

On September 1, 1988, Liberty became an official member at the NCAA I-AA level. That season, the Flames would finish with an 8-3 record during its first year as a Division I program. Liberty was ranked 20th in the final national poll by the Football News Gazette.

Sam Rutigliano was named Liberty’s fifth head football coach in December 1988, and just a few months later, in May 1989, groundbreaking for a new stadium took place on the site of Liberty’s old practice fields. It was the beginning of the current Williams Stadium.

Liberty University Stadium (now Williams Stadium) was opened on October 21, 1989, in front of a crowd of 12,750. The Flames defeated Towson State, 37-18, in the first ever game played at the new on campus stadium.

Tight end Eric Green became the first Liberty player selected in the first round of the NFL Draft on April 22, 1990. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 21st overall pick and remains the only player to be selected in the first round in the history of the program.

On January 13, 2000, Sam Rutigliano announced his retirement. He remains the winningest coach in program history with a 67-53 record during his 11-year tenure at the helm of the Flames’ football program.

Big South Conference Era

In 2002, Liberty joined the Big South Conference. The first few years in the league, under head coach Ken Karcher, the program struggled to find consistency.

That changed when Danny Rocco took over as the seventh head coach in program history for the 2006 season. In his second season, Liberty won the first ever Big South Conference title, finishing with an unblemished 4-0 record in conference play during the 2007 campaign. On November 17, 2007, Liberty shut out Gardner-Webb, 31-0, in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, to capture the title.

It was the start of a dynasty in the Big South under Coach Rocco. Liberty would win at least a share of the Big South Championship in four of five seasons.

Following the 2011 season, Rocco left the Flames to become the head coach at Richmond. He would be replaced by Turner Gill, the eighth head coach in the history of the football program.

The Big South dynasty would continue under Gill. The Flames won at least a share of the conference title in each of his first three seasons. This was capped by a 2014 win over No. 1 Coastal Carolina, 15-14, thanks to a potential game-winning 24-yard field goal being blocked by Chima Uzowihe. The win was Liberty’s first over the No. 1 team in the country and secured a seventh Big South title in eight years.

The win over the Chanticleers also gave Liberty the Big South’s automatic bid to the NCAA FCS Playoffs, securing Liberty its first ever postseason appearance. Just one week later, Liberty would piece together a 17-play, 85-yard scoring drive during the fourth quarter to score the go-ahead touchdown in a 26-21 win over No. 15 James Madison in the first round of the playoffs. The magical run would come to an end in the second round, falling to No. 5 Villanova, 29-22.

FBS Independence

On February 16, 2017, Liberty received notification that the NCAA had approved its request to enter into the FBS reclassification process. Liberty kicked off its FBS era with a resounding 52-10 win over in-state foe Old Dominion, in front of 20,425 fans at a newly renovated Williams Stadium.

The 2017 season would be the final for Coach Gill at Liberty, as he helped guide the Flames to a 6-6 season. At the time, Liberty became the ninth team in NCAA history to win six or more games during their first season competing at the FBS level.

Hugh Freeze became the ninth head coach in program history, officially named during a press conference on December 7, 2018. On August 31, 2019, No. 22 Syracuse topped Liberty 24-0 in the season opener at Williams Stadium in a game of firsts. It marked the first time a Power Five team and the first time a Top 25 team had visited Lynchburg. It was also Freeze’s first game as head coach at Liberty which saw him confined to a hospital bed in the coaching booth due to a recent surgery.

Liberty would advance to the program’s first ever bowl game during Freeze’s first season at the helm of the program. The Flames took on Georgia Southern in the Cure Bowl at Exploria Stadium in Orlando. Liberty recorded a 23-16 victory, becoming the third team to ever win a bowl game in their first year of bowl eligibility and finished off an 8-5 campaign.

On October 17, 2020, Liberty picked up its first ever win over an ACC opponent when the Flames knocked off Syracuse, 38-21, in the Carrier Dome. That win helped propel the Flames to its first ever national ranking at the FBS level when the Flames were ranked No. 25 in the Associated Press poll on November 1, 2020.

Liberty would open the season at 8-0 for the first time in program history while also knocking off in-state P5 opponent Virginia Tech during the campaign. In the 2020 Cure Bowl, Liberty won its second bowl win in a row, defeating No. 9 Coastal Carolina, 37-34, in overtime. The win capped a 10-1 season for the Flames, which tied a school record for wins in a season. Liberty finished the year ranked No. 17 in the AP poll and No. 18 in the USA Today Coaches poll, the program’s first ever end of the year national ranking at the FBS level.

The announced move to CUSA would come during the 2021 season, but the Flames would still finish its final two years as an FBS member under the direction of Coach Freeze. in 2021, Liberty secured its third bowl game and win in a row, defeating Eastern Michigan, 56-20, at the LendingTree Bowl. With the win, liberty became the second FBS transitioning team in NCAA history to win three straight bowl games during its first three full seasons at the FBS level, joining Appalachian State.

In 2022, Liberty raced out to an impressive 8-1 start to the season. The only loss came by one point on the road at No. 18 Wake Forest. The Flames picked up program defining wins over BYU, 41-14, on October 22 and at Arkansas, 21-19, on November 5.

Modern-day Flames

As the regular season came to an end in 2022, Hugh Freeze was named head coach at Auburn, and the Flames hired former Coastal Carolina head coach Jamey Chadwell.

Chadwell has been one of the best coaches in the sport over the past three years, going 31-6 at Coastal Carolina. He has prior head coaching experience at Charleston Southern, Delta State, and North Greenville. In 2020, Coastal started 11-0 before losing to the Flames in the Cure Bowl. This start saw the Chanticleers and Chadwell rise to the top 10 in the AP Poll. Chadwell won 11 national coach of the year honors that year.

Liberty has a rich history and things have never looked brighter than they do right now. While there could be a learning curve as the program moves into Conference USA under a new head coach, Liberty is set up for long term success and fans have a lot to look forward to.