Two teams that will be playing in bowl games headline the opponents on the University of Maine’s 2025 football schedule.
The Football Championship Subdivision Black Bears will open their season on Aug. 30 at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. against a Flames team that is currently 8-3 and will play Buffalo in the Bahamas Bowl on Jan. 4.
On Sept. 20, UMaine will trek to Statesboro, Ga. for a game against Georgia Southern, currently an 8-4 team that will face Sam Houston State (Texas) in the New Orleans Bowl on Thursday.
The Black Bears will receive a $400,000 guarantee for the trip to Liberty and $325,000 for the journey to Georgia Southern.
Liberty has won at least eight games for six straight seasons including a 13-1 campaign in 2023 and a 10-1 showing in 2020.
It has gone 3-2 in bowl games including a 45-6 loss to No. 8 Oregon a year ago in the Fiesta Bowl.
Georgia Southern will be playing in its third straight bowl game and lost the previous two to Ohio University (41-21) in the Myrtle Beach Bowl a year ago and to Buffalo (23-21) in the Camellia Bowl two seasons ago.
In its other two non-conference games, UMaine will take on Stonehill (Mass.) for the first time ever on Sept. 13 in Orono and will travel to Merrimack College (Mass.) for the second straight year for an Oct. 11 contest.
UMaine beat Merrimack 26-15 this past fall.
Stonehill went 1-10 this fall including an 0-6 record in the Northeast Conference while Merrimack went 5-6 as a Football Championship Subdivision independent.
UMaine will face four CAA teams it faced this past season.
UMaine will open its CAA campaign at William and Mary (Va.) on Sept. 6. William and Mary was 7-5 this season, 4-4 in conference play. This will break the 8-8 deadlock in the series between the two.
The Black Bears will host North Carolina A&T (1-11, 0-8 in CAA) on Sept. 27 in the first-ever meeting between the two.
In addition to William & Mary and North Carolina A&T, the other two CAA teams on the schedule that UMaine didn’t play this fall are Stony Brook (8-4, 5-3) in Orono on Nov. 1 and at Hampton (5-7, 2-6) on Nov. 8.
The four teams UMaine did play are Bryant (38-26 win), Elon (31-25 loss), Rhode Island (24-14 loss) and New Hampshire (27-9 loss).
Rhode Island and New Hampshire earned FCS playoff berths.
UMaine will visit Bryant (2-10 overall, 0-8 in CAA) on Oct. 4; host Elon (6-6, 5-3) on Oct. 25, and Rhode Island (11-3, 7-1) on Nov. 15 and travel to New Hampshire (8-5, 6-2) on Nov. 22.
Rhode Island beat Central Connecticut State 21-17 in its first FCS playoff game before being eliminated by Mercer 17-10.
New Hampshire was jettisoned from the playoffs by the University of Tennessee Martin in the opening round, 41-10.
