Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Coastal Carolina Chanticleers" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
University	Coastal Carolina University
Conference	Sun Belt (primary) ASUN (women's lacrosse)
NCAA	Division I (FBS)
Athletic director	Matt Hogue
Location	Conway, South Carolina
Varsity teams	19 (8 men's, 11 women's)
Football stadium	Brooks Stadium
Basketball arena	HTC Center
Baseball stadium	Springs Brooks Stadium
Softball stadium	St. John Stadium
Soccer stadium	CCU Soccer Stadium
Tennis venue	Stevens Tennis Complex
Mascot	Chauncey
Nickname	Chanticleers (Chants)
Fight song	CCU Fight Song
Colors	Teal, bronze, and black[1]
Website	goccusports.com
Team NCAA championships
1

The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (/ˈʃɒntɪklɪər/, SHON-tih-clear^[2]) are the athletic teams that represent Coastal Carolina University. They participate in Division I of the NCAA as a member of the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) in most sports, having joined that conference as a full but non-football member on July 1, 2016. At that time, the football team began a transition from the second-level Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to the top-level Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The team played the 2016 season as an FCS independent, joined SBC football for the 2017 season, and became full FBS members for 2018 and beyond. A Chanticleer is a proud and fierce rooster.^[3] Before joining the SBC, the Chanticleers had been members of the Big South Conference since that league's formation in 1983. Coastal fields varsity teams in 19 sports, 8 for men and 11 for women. The university regularly competed for the Sasser Cup, the Big South's trophy for the university with the best sports program among the member institutions, winning the trophy nine times, tied with rival Liberty University.

Until the early 1960s, Coastal's teams were known as the Trojans. When the school became an extension of the University of South Carolina, the push was made for a mascot more in line with the parent's mascot, the Gamecock; the ultimate choice was the Chanticleer, the proud, witty rooster made famous in "The Nun's Priest's Tale" of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (the mascot itself would be named Zachary). When Coastal became an independent university in 1993, despite some calls to change the mascot as part of "a complete split from USC" , the Chanticleer remained the school's mascot.^[4] Coastal has developed in-state rivalries with Charleston Southern, Clemson, College of Charleston, Furman, Presbyterian, South Carolina, South Carolina State, The Citadel, USC Upstate, Winthrop, and Wofford. Their fiercest in-state rivals are Charleston Southern, College of Charleston, and Winthrop. Coastal has rivalries with every Sun Belt school in the East Division (Appalachian State, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, South Alabama, and Troy). Coastal's main Sun Belt rivals are Appalachian State and Georgia Southern. They also have a rivalry with Liberty that dates back to when both universities were members of the Big South Conference.

The volleyball program is one of the most successful teams in the country. It won four consecutive conference championships (Big South 2014, 2015) (Sun Belt 2016, 2017). Leah Hardeman ('14 -'17) is the only player in Division I history to win four conference player of the year awards. The baseball team has developed into a national powerhouse as well; it won the national title in 2016.

As of the 2022–23 school year, the SBC sponsors all of Coastal's sports except women's lacrosse, which plays in the ASUN Conference. The SBC reinstated men's soccer (a fall sport) for the 2022 season, and added beach volleyball (a spring sport) for the 2023 season.