Missouri State Football wrapped up their final season in the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) recently. MSU has been a member of the MVFC since 1990 and a member of the FCS since 1981. The school announced they will be joining Conference USA (CUSA) back in May, and the move officially goes into effect on July 1, 2025.
The NCAA divides schools with football teams into two subdivisions, the FCS and the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The main differences between the two are scholarships, money and playoff format.
In the FCS, schools are only allowed to give out 63 scholarships on their rosters, whereas the FBS can give out 85. In the FCS playoffs, teams compete in a 24-team single elimination bracket. In the more popular FBS, teams are given bowl games such as the Orange Bowl, the Rose Bowl, etc., and the top four teams from those bowl games compete in the College Football Playoffs for the National Championship.
The FBS is seen as the highest level of college football and tends to lead to more national exposure for schools, which in turn brings in more money for the program.
Missouri State, in announcing its move to CUSA and the FBS, makes it a more competitive school for recruiting. The Division 1 football early signing period begins on December 4, and even though Missouri State is still a member of the MVFC and FCS until July, athletes will likely keep the move in mind when deciding to sign with Missouri State.
CUSA will have 12 teams in the conference, including Florida International, Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, Liberty, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, New Mexico State, Sam Houston, University of Texas at El Paso and Western Kentucky, with Missouri State and the University of Delaware joining in 2025.
Missouri State will open the 2025 season on August 30, 2025, against the USC Trojans in Los Angeles, California as their first game in the FBS. Two weeks later, September 13, 2025, the Bears will host Southern Methodist University at Robert W. Plaster Stadium to mark their first ever home game against an FBS opponent.