The University of Maine football team will open the 2025 season against the Football Bowl Subdivision’s Liberty University Flames, who have played in five consecutive bowl games in their six-year existence in the FBS.
The game will be played on Saturday, Aug. 30 at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Va.
UMaine will receive a $400,000 guarantee for the game according to Tyson McHatten, UMaine’s senior associate athletic director for external operations/communications.
UMaine is in the Football Championship Subdivision which has 22 fewer scholarships and not as many resources as FBS programs.
The Flames, under first-year head coach Jamey Chadwell, went 13-1 last season in their first campaign in Conference USA and beat New Mexico State 49-35 in the CUSA championship game.
The Flames then lost to No. 8 Oregon 45-6 in the Fiesta Bowl.
It will be UMaine’s second trip to Liberty in six years as the Black Bears lost to the Flames 59-44 in 2019.
In their only other meeting, UMaine beat Liberty 42-20 in 1992 in Orono when both teams were in Division I-AA (now FCS).
Liberty has gone 53-23 since becoming an FBS team in 2018 including a 3-2 mark in bowl games.
“We’re excited,” said UMaine head coach Jordan Stevens. “It is a program on the rise and they have a great venue and facility.”
He also noted that Chadwell came to Liberty after he did an outstanding coaching job at Coastal Carolina in South Carolina.
He was named the AP College Coach of the Year in 2020.
“It’s going to be a good challenge for us,” added Stevens.
Liberty will be one of two FBS schools on UMaine’s schedule in 2025.
UMaine will take on Georgia Southern on Saturday, Sept. 20, at Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Ga.
Georgia Southern went 6-7 last season including a 41-21 loss to Ohio University in the Myrtle Beach Bowl.
UMaine will receive a $325,000 guarantee for that game.
UMaine lost to Georgia Southern 26-18 in 2019 in Statesboro.
The two teams met three times in the FCS playoffs with Georgia Southern winning all three.
The Black Bears will play just one FBS team this season as they will visit the University of Oklahoma on Nov. 2 for a 2:30 game. The Black Bears will receive $650,000 for that game.
However, they will also receive $250,000 for a visit to FCS power Montana State on Sept. 7.
