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PROVO — With just three days to prepare, BYU football has added an 11th game to the season.
The No. 8-ranked Cougars added a matchup with No. 14 Coastal Carolina, both schools announced Thursday, after the Chanticleers' original opponent — No. 25 Liberty — was forced to cancel their game due to a rise in COVID-19 infections in the Flames' camp.
The game, which will be broadcast on ESPNU, will kick off at 3:30 p.m. MT.
The deal will have BYU take the place of Liberty in Saturday afternoon's kickoff in Conway, South Carolina, a game between two non-Power 5 opponents currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 that need some help to enter the conversation for a New Year's Six bowl bid by the College Football Playoff selection committee.
BYU (9-0) currently finds itself at No. 13 nationally in that all-important poll, one spot outside of the top-12 that traditionally awards at-large berths in the top bowl games in college football. The Chanticleers (9-0) have already locked up a spot in the Sun Belt championship game against No. 20 Louisiana in two weeks, but were set to face the third of three nonconference opponents in the regular-season home finale.
A win over the Cougars could vault Coastal Carolina into the NY6 conversation, with No. 7 Cincinnati currently holding the inside track for the berth guaranteed to the highest-ranked Group of Five team. Likewise, a win for BYU could show the notoriously incredulous committee that their schedule — which was torn apart after three teams from the Pac-12, one from the Big Ten and one from the SEC canceled what was billed as arguably the toughest schedule in BYU football history — has the merits of a top-tier team deserving of playing on college football's grandest showcase.
"We have said from the very beginning this year that we want to play games, and I know our guys are excited to have this opportunity to play on Saturday against a great opponent in nationally ranked Coastal Carolina," BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. "This is a really well-coached team with an outstanding quarterback. I know Jamey Chadwell will have his team ready to go, and we're working hard to prepare to share the field with them. I think we are all grateful for the chance to give the players on both teams another chance to play football this weekend."
BYU inched up to No. 13 in the Playoff selection committee's latest rankings Tuesday, with Coastal Carolina at No. 18. That helped spark the quick scheduling change, and when Liberty began to have "COVID issues," the Cougars pounced on the chance to play a top-20 opponent.
On Monday and Tuesday, the Cougars practiced without an opponent set for the weekend. If nothing else, they were going to prepare and train to place San Diego State on Dec. 12 in the regular season-finale. By Wednesday afternoon, the chance to play the Chanticleers was increasingly more likely.
BYU coaches dived into game prep, graduate assistants immediately began to cut film, and players found highlights, YouTube clips and anything else they could in the hours before a special evening practice to try to get a look on Coastal Carolina.
"Before the game was even finalized and they were a potential opponent, we were in the film room finding games and watching as much film as we could," BYU safety Troy Warner told reporters Thursday afternoon. "We're already a couple of days behind, and we had to catch up a bit. I feel really good with where we are at."
The last-minute game couldn't have happened without a lot of people: Coastal Carolina and its university president, BYU alum Michael T. Benson, who previously led Snow College and Southern Utah, among other stops; as well as athletic directors from BYU, Coastal, and Liberty; and administrators from the Sun Belt Conference.
Finally, ESPN stepped in to nudge the game across the finish line, promising to continue to send a full broadcast crew and its three-hour long GameDay pregame show on campus in Conway, South Carolina for the top-20 matchup.
"We're grateful that this game between our two teams could be put together in such a timely fashion." BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said in a statement from the university. "It's good to have a partner like ESPN that can help put together such a meaningful game at this point of the season."
Just before the game was formalized and announced publicly, Holmoe received a phone call from Liberty athletic director Ian McCaw. The two had worked together in the past, including scheduling a home-and-home series between two private, religious schools that were both FBS independents that will conclude in 2022 in Lynchburg, Virginia.
When it became clear that the Flames wouldn't be able to field a football team for its final (currently scheduled) game of the 2020 regular season, McCaw called Holmoe to last-minute series in motion, and wished him luck against the unbeaten Chanticleers.
A game that 24 hours previous had been nothing more than "a lead," according to Holmoe, was suddenly one of the top matchups of Week 14 and one of only two games pairing two ranked teams.
"Wednesday was the first we felt that could be ready to happen," Holmoe said. "Wednesday is the day you start realizing you are running out of time."
The two sides moved swiftly to execute the deal. No contract was drawn up immediately, and neither Holmoe nor Coastal Carolina athletic director Matt Hogue worried about payment or cutting checks.
The Chanticleers will eventually return the trip to Provo to complete the home-and-home series. But that's a discussion for another day, after the wild season that is 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic are in the rearview mirror.
No doubt, ESPN played a pivotal role in engaging the two sides. Holmoe stopped short of calling the Worldwide Leader vital in constructing the deal, but left little doubt that the Cougars' long-term relationship with their television partner factored immensely into negotiations.
Equally as important is that BYU, without having to report to a conference, could make a decision independently of any league oversight or headquarters.
"It certainly could have happened, but we didn't have to check with a lot of people to make it happen," Holmoe said. "It was just the Sun Belt and BYU. When the Sun Belt and Coastal said yes, we just had to do it.
"I think the Sun Belt had a lot to do with putting the game together. It takes two or more to tango. But you don't want to have a game like this and not have it broadcast. When ESPN can put it together like that, it makes it a ton easier."
Led by strong-armed quarterback Grayson McCall, who has thrown for 1,747 yards and 20 touchdowns with just one interception, the Chanticleers have the 26th-ranked scoring offense, averaging 37.9 points per game, and No. 11 scoring defense, allowing just 16.3 points.
BYU ranks No. 9 in scoring offense and No. 6 in scoring defense, the only team ranked in the top-10 nationally in both categories. BYU and Coastal Carolina are two of the three teams that currently sit at 9-0, along with No. 2 Notre Dame.
The game is just the third time two undefeated teams have met at 9-0 or better since 2000, joining No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Alabama in 2009 and No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Michigan in 2006, according to ESPN Stats and Information.
Like McCall, BYU quarterback Zach Wilson was among the 50 quarterbacks named to the Davey O'Brien QB Class of 2020. The Corner Canyon product also joins names like Clemson's Trevor Lawrence, Florida's Kyle Trask and Notre Dame's Ian Book on the list.
It's a team worthy of a top-10 opponent, according to the AP and Coaches polls, or at least a top-13 one, by the Playoff selection committee's standards. And it leaves no time to waste.
BYU already had one short week, against Boise State, when the Cougars juggled game week against the then-No. 20 team in the country on the road with Election Day and a Friday night kickoff on FS1. So the Cougars know how to work fast.
"It's a little up and down, just like all of 2020 is, but you take the moment," offensive lineman James Empey said. "We've got a practice today, and we're just trying to take it one day at a time."
Word of the game first began leaking out Wednesday afternoon, when BYU players, coaches and staff members using wide-eye emojis and mysterious GIFs on Twitter to strongly imply that a big announcement was forthcoming. This came as the Cougars were practicing through the week, preparing for an unknown opponent, and Liberty was struggling under a bout of COVID-19 tests that reportedly included starting quarterback Malik Willis.
One source inside the BYU program told KSL.com that the Cougars received a full round of COVID-19 testing Wednesday, the same they usually receive for a Saturday game. Fans around Provo reportedly spotted the BYU football equipment truck leaving campus late Wednesday night, with strong signs pointing toward what will be the biggest game of the year in terms of AP and CFP poll rankings.
Adding to the necessity of the matchup is ESPN's broadcasting agreement, which had already planned to broadcast its pregame show College GameDay from the Conway, South Carolina campus based just 14 miles from Myrtle Beach. BYU hasn't hosted GameDay since the then-No. 16 Cougars hosted No. 8 TCU in 2009 (a game that was broadcast on the old Versus network).
The popular college pregame show runs from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. MT on ESPN.
