On Wednesday, North Carolina announced it has added North Carolina Central to its 2024 football schedule. That game will replace Liberty on the slate.
That game is part of a three-game series that was scheduled in 2018 after the Flames made the move to the FBS. Liberty was scheduled to play in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 2024 and 2031 while hosting the Tar Heels at Williams Stadium in 2028. While it has not been formally announced, it can be expected that all three of these games are off the future slates.
With Liberty’s move to Conference USA beginning with the 2023 season, the Flames must purge their schedule to make room for eight conference game. In addition to the UNC game, which was scheduled for October 19, 2024, Liberty has also seen games against South Carolina, Miami (OH) and Virginia that were scheduled for 2023 removed from the schedule.
With these moves so far, Liberty’s 2023 schedule has been trimmed to 9 games and will need to see additional games removed from it. New Mexico State will be able to remain on the schedule as a conference game, but of the remaining 8 games, Liberty must remove four more. Here’s a look at the Flames’ current 2023 schedule following these moves:
09/02 vs Bowling Green
09/09 @ Coastal Carolina
09/16 @ Buffalo
09/23 vs Eastern Michigan
09/30 vs Old Dominion
10/07 OPEN
10/14 OPEN
10/21 OPEN
10/28 vs ETSU
11/04 OPEN
11/11 vs UConn
11/18 vs UMass
11/25 @ New Mexico State
Liberty will also add games against CUSA teams Jacksonville State, Sam Houston State, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, UTEP, Florida International, and Louisiana Tech to the 2023 slate. Liberty Athletics Director Ian McCaw has previously mentioned that an ideal scheduling model for the Flames in CUSA will be to play one regional Power Five, one regional FCS, and two Group of Five rivalry games every year.
Here’s a look at what the current 2024 schedule looks like after the UNC game is removed:
08/31 vs Coastal Carolina
09/07 @ UCF
09/14 @ Eastern Michigan
09/21 vs Ball State
09/28 @ Appalachian State
10/05 vs Marshall
10/12 OPEN
10/19 OPEN
10/26 vs Texas State
11/02 OPEN
11/09 vs Campbell
11/16 @ UMass
11/23 @ FIU
11/30 vs New Mexico State
