By Kempton Smith | App State Alum | BGP Contributor
Nestled just south of the interchange of 501 bypass and 501 business near Conway, SC, is the campus and stadium for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. It’s more than ten miles to Myrtle Beach at the closest point. Don’t be fooled by the marketing hype; you cannot see the ocean from the cheap seats at the top of the stadium.
Coastal football is off to a good start this season. Their lone loss to ODU is the blemish that keeps the door open for a Mountaineer division title. A win over Coastal keeps App in the driver’s seat for the conference championship game. A loss will leave our 12/03 hopes dependent on games we do not control.
Football Culture: Parking lot, Stands, Scoreboard
Coastal Football Tradition?
Like LLLLLLLLouisiana, App State should spell CoastaLLLLLLL.
The Mountaineers are 7-1 against the Chanticleers, but CCU football is improving.
Chant football success seemingly arrived with COVID. The Chanticleers began football in 2003. Before its rise to stardom in 2020, each season seemed to be great or horrible. CCU Football recorded five losing seasons (2007, 09, 17, 18, 19) and six trips to the FCS playoffs. CCU transitioned to FBS 2016-2017. 2020 and 2021 were banners year, marking a significant turnaround for CCU, recording 11 wins in both seasons.
2020 was also CCU’s first-ever win over the Mountaineers. That season ended for the Chants with an overall record of 11-1. They were the (disputed) champion of the Sunbelt, went to their first-ever bowl game, had their first bowl loss, and closed with an AP rank of 14. Suddenly the mullet haircut was back (at least among the Chants).
The 2021 season saw Chant losses to App State and Georgia State, keeping them out of the Conference Championship, but they got their first bowl win (against Northern Illinois) and finished the year ranked 22 by the AP.
They still have not played in a conference championship game.
Football Culture
With only 20 years of football and just over 50 years as an institution, Coastal has not had the time to develop the alum base nor the football culture seen in most FBS programs. Their alum base (about 41k) does not contribute to the Chanticleer Athletic Foundation (CAF) like the Yosef Club (MAF) does. 2021 saw total contributions to the CAF at $879k compared to App State’s $8.3m.
Despite the alums’ low level of financial support, the Athletic Administration and University fund the program (significantly). Head Coach Chadwell is the highest-paid Sunbelt Coach. His base is $992k, and he has $1.3m in maximum bonuses.
Coastal spends more on football and athletics but cannot raise money from its donor base. It gets its money from Institutional/Government support.
Stands, Fans, Mascots, and Traditions
Tailgating
Tailgating is encouraged and appears to be allowed in all game-day parking lots. Students are required to register and wear designed wristbands to participate in tailgates. In online messages, the AD expressly permits Kentucky Fried Chicken as a tailgate menu item, despite the mascot being the Chanticleer.
FanFest at Teal Town is a university-sponsored meet-and-greet for fans to interact with that week’s featured Chant team members. Otherwise, there’s not much recent information about pre-game fan activities.
Chauncy the Chanticleer Mascot
Unlike the Mountaineers, The Chanticleer is not native to South Carolina’s coastal region. The Chant has its roots in classical English literature, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, specifically. Quoting Chaucer, “For crowing, there was not his equal in all the land.” Based on Sunbelt Fan message posts, I think all would agree their fans do a lot of crowing.
The Stadium Experience
The recent national ranking and media attention have not translated into “fans in the stands” for CCU. The official capacity of Brooks Stadium is 21,000. In this year’s home opener against Army, a record crowd of 21,165 attended. That total has not been matched since. One week later, only 12,200 saw the Gardner-Webb game and only slightly more for Buffalo. In this season’s first home conference game against Georgia Southern, the attendance neared 19k. ODU attendance dropped off to under 17k. The 2021 season attendance was not much better, despite the national ranking.
By comparison, App State attendance has averaged over its seating capacity of 30k for 2021 and 2022.
The CCU student section was recently labeled the weakest of the Sunbelt schools. Some articles beg to differ, notably an Underdog Dynasty report of their first home game event against P5 Kansas.
Attendance for this week’s App State match-up could be like Kansas and Army. App State’s seating allotment sold out. Limited tickets are offered online for a high price. The game will be played in front of a sellout crowd.
As if to confuse TV viewers, this will be the Chanticleers’ first-ever Blackout game. Look for gold-wearing Mountaineer fans.
Despite the sellout, could the reputation as an unenthusiastic student section be fair? The CCU athletics department assigned students to the lower-level horseshoe of the north end zone. Coastal Carolina’s band is seated in a corner between the end zone and the sideline.
KBS puts students behind the Mountaineer’s bench on the home side across the full breadth of the sideline, arguably the best seats in the house. Proximity to the team and a long tradition of winning seasons give App State emphasis in providing the home-field advantage for the Mountaineers.
Stats Comparing Universities
Ranked at 38th in Southern Regional universities, Coastal is just outside the top 25%. App State is in the top 10. See the numbers in the table below.
| App State | Coastal | |
| US News Ranking (overall)* | 6 | 38 |
| Best for Veterans | 2 | 16 |
| Undergrad Teaching | 2 | 12 |
| Median Starting Salary for grads | $45,200 | $43,400 |
| Total enrollment | 20,641 | 10,473 |
| Tuition (in-state) | $7,970 | $11,640 |
| Tuition (out-of-state) | $23,974 | $28,490 |
*Rankings for Regional Universities (South)
