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Missouri State has fared pretty well during its first season as an FBS team, as the Bears improved to 6-3 with a win over Liberty last weekend. That theoretically makes them eligible to play in a bowl game, but the school may end up taking the NCAA to court due to the uphill battle it’s facing over an outdated rule that could keep them out of the postseason.
There were 134 teams at the FBS level during the 2024 college football season, but that number increased by two this year after Delaware and Missouri State were welcomed into the fold.
The latter boasts a program with a history stretching back to 1909, and prior to the start of the 2024 campaign, the Bears announced they’d be making the leap to college football’s highest level by leaving the Missouri Valley Football Conference in favor of Conference USA.
The team went 8-4 during its final season as an FCS squad, but oddsmakers weren’t overly optimistic about their chances in 2025 when you consider their over/under for total wins was set at 4.5. However, they’ve surpassed expectations and recently improved to 6-3 (and 4-1 in conference play) with a 21-17 upset over Liberty on Saturday.
That win put them over the threshold for a bowl game, but they’ve become the latest school to encounter a hurdle that’s set the stage for a battle with the NCAA.
Missouri State’s athletic director isn’t ruling out legal action if the Bears aren’t allowed to compete in a bowl game
Schools that decide to move from DII to DI are currently subjected to a three-year reclassification period put in place by the NCAA to ensure they meet the requirements to compete at the highest level of college sports.
Schools that are transitioning are also banned from competing in the postseason for two years. That meant Missouri State wasn’t eligible for the FCS playoffs last year, and they headed into the current season knowing they wouldn’t automatically earn an invite to a bowl even if they hit the six wins that would otherwise trigger a bid.
In 2023, James Madison, Jacksonville State, and Tarleton State all found themselves facing the situation the Bears are currently dealing with after hitting the requisite threshold.
The NCAA denied the eligibility waivers that those teams submitted, and Virginia’s attorney general threatened to file an antitrust lawsuit on JMU’s behalf before the Dukes (and Jacksonville State) ended up getting an invite to a bowl due to a lack of six-win teams.
According to CBS Sports, Missouri State is also preparing to lobby the governing body for an exemption, as athletics director Patrick Ransdell took aim at the “antiquated” rule during an interview where he acknowledged similar petitions have “not been looked at favorably” by the NCAA.
Ransdell voiced his displeasure with the status quo, saying:
“In today’s world, you can reinvent your team in a matter of weeks. It’s just something that’s dated.
If we’re really in the business for student-athletes and the betterment of the student-athlete experience, there’s no reason we should be punishing the student-athletes who are working hard day in, day out and deprive them of a postseason opportunity when there’s really no good reason to do that.”
He also said the school has not ruled out the possibility of staging the same kind of legal challenge Virginia’s AG floated in 2023, adding:
“We’ll obviously keep our options open, but you would like to think that cooler heads prevail and you figure out a good solution that’s good for everybody. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
As CBS Sports notes, there are currently 59 teams that have hit six wins on the season, and there are 19 others that are one victory away with at least a couple of games left on the schedule. There are 82 spots to be filled, so we’ll have to wait and see how things pan out.