It took about two years of work for Missouri State University officials to upgrade to the NCAA’s top level of football competition, and work will continue for at least two more.
The university held an official announcement May 13 of its agreement to join Conference USA, where MSU leaders and the conference’s commissioner shared more details about the upcoming transition.
Those details included naming attorney Tom Strong as a donor of $5 million. The gift will be used to pay part of a seven-figure, one-time fee to join the NCAA, said President Clif Smart.
“He has allowed me to share the extent of that gift,” Smart said during the event. “He wants to encourage others to follow in that example.”
The shift allows MSU’s football team to move up from the NCAA’s Football Championship Series Subdivision into the Football Bowl Subdivision, its highest level of competition. With that comes more national prominence and status, Smart said.
Missouri State leaving the Missouri Valley Conference is the latest in a decade that has been filled with high-profile switches and realignments. Smart said this might be one of the last short-term opportunities for an FCS school to graduate to the FBS.
Conference USA commissioner Judy MacLeod acknowledged the shaky status quo in college athletics, but said that Missouri State’s membership in Conference USA improves stability for both. Missouri State will be the conference’s 12th member school.
“I’m pretty sure there has never been a more unsettled time,” MacLeod said. “As a whole in college athletics, each conference and each institution right now are just trying to find our path forward. Today we are going to celebrate that Missouri State and Conference USA solved a little piece of that puzzle.”
The move also means work awaits for Plaster Stadium. The university anticipates spending millions on upgrades to the stadium on Grand Avenue — a $4.2 locker room renovation is already underway, and Athletic Director Kyle Moats said future work will be done on the west side seating and press box in order to meet FBS standards.
But the rest of MSU’s facilities — including Great Southern Arena, where the basketball teams play in D1 competition — are ready for the spotlight.
“I think our facilities in every other sport are on par, if not better,” Moats said. “And I think that’s one of the reasons we were invited (to Conference USA).”
Smart said that the university’s Board of Governors will begin that planning work once its incoming president is on the job. He said that President Richard “Biff” Williams was involved in discussions leading up to the transfer, including presentations and conversations with Conference USA’s leadership.
“It was important that he was involved in the decision because he is going to have to implement this,” Smart said. “He was on the call when we did the presentation to the President’s Council. In the final call, they wanted to talk to him alone, before they voted to include us, and he reassured them that athletics fundraising and the stadium renovation will occur.”
Moats said the bulk of the transfer will be completed at the end of the 2024-25 school year, but not every sports team will shift. Moats said men’s soccer and both swimming teams will need to find new memberships if an agreement with the Missouri Valley Conference can’t be reached. Moats said he anticipates an announcement about that soon.
Joining the conference and playing D1 football will come with a higher price tag, of about $5 million more in scholarships, equipment and travel. Calling the transfer “budget neutral,” Smart said part of those costs will be handled by new revenue streams that come from media rights payouts and broadcast rights of nationally televised games.
“Those two sources account for about $4 million, and then we’ll figure out the fifth million. And we have a start on that in a variety of ways. We’re confident that as we start, the money will be there.”
