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May 27—BROOKINGS — Appalachian State. Georgia Southern. Jacksonville State. Sam Houston. James Madison. Kennesaw State. Delaware.
And now Missouri State.
The string of FCS-to-FBS defections continues, but the most recent one hits much closer to home here in the Dakotas, as the Missouri State Bears are the first team from the powerful Missouri Valley Football Conference to make the jump to college football’s highest classification.
The Bears are a dubious choice to be the first, as they are a program that has been inarguably one of the conference’s worst for the last decade-plus. Since changing their name from Southwest Missouri State in 2005 the Bears have had only a few winning seasons, and only once since the turn of the century have they finished more than one game over .500.
That came in 2021 when Bobby Petrino led Missouri State to an 8-4 record and an FCS playoff berth. They went 5-6 the following season, Petrino left, and the Bears were 4-7 last year under Ryan Beard.
But the life breathed into the program by Petrino was enough to convince Missouri State brass that an FBS move could work, and the announcement came earlier this month that the Bears have accepted an invitation to join Conference USA in the Football Bowl Subdivision. They’ll play one final season in the Valley in 2024 before moving up to the 85-scholarship level and joining a conference with teams stretching from New Mexico to Florida.
Predictably, Missouri State’s announcement drew a strong reaction in Fargo, where many have long since grown bored with the FCS, its 63 scholarship limit and dwindling list of serious contenders.
The Bison football dynasty reached absurd proportions in the 2010s, with NDSU winning eight out of nine national championships at one point and beating virtually every FBS opponent that dared to host them, so there’s no…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/matt-zimmer-theres-no-rush-143100949.html
Author : The Daily Republic, Mitchell, S.D.
Publish date : 2024-05-27 14:31:00
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