Bowl-Eligible Bears -- Missouri State's Unlikely Journey to Bowl Season

Going into the 2025 College Football Season -- there were 2 programs making the jump from FCS to FBS, joining the field of 136 Teams -- The Delaware Blue Hens, and The Missouri State Bears. Both programs joined Conference USA this year, where they were projected to finish toward the bottom with 3 or less conference wins. But in their 1st year, both programs out-performed projections -- Delaware going 4-4 in CUSA, 6-6 overall, and finishing 7th in CUSA. And The Bears -- going 5-3 in CUSA, 7-5 overall, and 5th in the CUSA.

But per NCAA rules, teams transitioning from FCS to FBS have a two-year period in which they are ineligible for the postseason. This rule applies for Basketball as well -- which is even more outrageous, especially when there have been several examples of teams winning their conference tournament and not being able to play in March Madness because of it (Most recently St. Thomas MN -- who won the Summit but weren't allowed to play in the NCAAT).

However, in NCAA Football, there are 41 Bowl Games across the sport -- meaning there needs to be 82 teams reaching the 6-win threshold to become Bowl Eligible. This season, there were only 80 teams (excluding Mo State and Delaware) that hit the 6-win mark -- meaning Missouri State and Delaware are able to fill those remaining 2 slots and play in a Bowl Game in their 1st year at the FBS Level. For just the 2nd and 3rd time -- the 1st being Jacksonville State in 2023, and these two teams in 2025 -- a team has made a Bowl Game in their 1st season in FBS. Quite the accomplishment for 2 squads picked to finish in the basement of CUSA.

While just making a Bowl Game may not mark a season as a success for an SEC-contender like Mizzou, it is a massive achievement for their fellow Missouri-program Mo State. It gives them an opportunity for National Exposure that is hard to come by for a brand new FBS Program -- regardless of the Bowl Game they get, they'll be playing on National TV with a chance to increase their reach across the country. Many College Football fans don't even know Mo State is an FBS Team -- making a Bowl Game announces them as a presence in FBS Football.

But further than just National Exposure, it can be financially beneficial to the Conference and University as a whole, as well as the Football Program. Conferences receive payouts when their teams make a Bowl Game -- so CUSA clinching Bowls for their 2 newest programs is good for the health of the Conference. Participating in Bowls also leads to increased donations from Alumni: especially in a debut season in FBS, this will very likely lead to a spike in donations to the University. And it's also great for the players and Coaches in the program -- getting a chance to travel to a new city for the Bowl Game, the merch/perks that come with that for the players and coaches, in some cases bonuses for a Head Coach that leads his team to a Bowl.

You would also imagine it's beneficial for a team like Missouri State to have a successful season like this in terms of recruiting and player retention. You'd hope that making a Bowl game leads to those additional donations, improving the health of the NIL fund they can offer to get better recruits in the door. But you also hope that this success shows the players in the program currently that they can have success at Missouri State -- maybe it gives them more reason to return to the program rather than testing the transfer portal waters.

However, in the unpredictable NIL era -- It's hard to count on that. We’ve already seen one player hit the portal in LT Ebubedike Nnabugwu — arguably the Bears’ best offensive lineman. When you have hidden gem players performing well on these lower-echelon programs, we see it all the time that the big Shark Programs swoop in with a cushy NIL package and poach these players away. Not saying that Mo State is ripe with players the P4 programs are going to be trying to steal -- but it's a concern across the sport for teams in conferences like CUSA, The American, The Sun Belt, etc.

But we're talking about the Positives today -- and making a Bowl Game is a massive Positive for the University of Missouri State. As an alum, I'm happy for the program as a whole, who spent years competing well in the toughest FCS conference in the country, but coming up short.

Coach Ryan Beard has been a godsend for this Program -- a coach that came in with a clear vision and established a culture from Day 1. He was the Defensive Coordinator for a couple of the better Bears' teams I've seen in 2020-2021, and took over the Head Coaching reigns in 2022 from Bobby Petrino. Beard is a defensive-minded coach that has had to piecemeal his defenses together over the last few years -- but has shown flashes with this year's team of being dominant on Defense (albeit with plenty of flashes of being absolutely brutal on D -- especially as of late).

But where Beard has really proven to be valuable is with his QB-coaching. He brought in Jacob Clark -- who spent his Freshman season at Minnesota before coming to Springfield. He spent a season behind standout QB Jason Shelley in 2022, and had injuries cut his 2023 season short to just 4 games, but has played mostly-full seasons in 2024 and 2025. In 2 seasons at the helm, he racked up 50 TD passes to 17 picks, as well as 4 rushing TDs and 6,500 passing yards. He's a tall gunslinger that's going to take his chances -- but his ability to move the ball downfield has won the Bears games this season.

And we also got a sneak peak this season of who will hopefully be the Future of Mo State Football at the QB position in dual-threat Deuce Bailey. The 6-foot freshman was forced into a spot-start while Jacob Clark dealt with injury vs Middle Tennessee, and performed admirably -- 278 passing yards and a TD, while adding a rushing score on the ground (and a good amount of rush yards -- but CFB subtracts sack yardage and he took 4 sacks). He played half a game against Western Kentucky the week before when Clark was injured, stepping in and keeping it close vs a good WKU team in a 5-point loss -- threw a TD and had 61 yards rushing in the 2nd half.

If Beard is able to keep Deuce in the program as next year's starter, he's got a great building-block for this roster. This team will be losing a good chunk of players on both sides of the ball to graduation, and there's always the potential of losing some guys to the Portal -- but retaining Deuce would give reason to the skill guys to stick around Springfield.

Some key pieces I'm hoping return to the Bears team next season:

• Ramone Green -- our best duel-threat RB from Nixa, the sophomore racked up 677 rush/rec yards with 3 TD's.

• Jmariyae Robinson -- has been a consistent 40 catch/500+ yard/5 TD wideout the last 3 seasons, is a reliable option underneath with good RAC-abilities

• Tristian Gardner -- Freshman WR that has been our best big-play threat on the outside, caught 6 TD's and should only improve as a route-runner, already has ability to blow by DBs

• Jeron Askren -- Freshman TE that 4 TD's in the last 5 games as his playing time ramped up. Makes big plays and is a solid redzone option.

• DJ Wesolak -- Soph DL from Boonville, went to Oregon St. as a Freshman, led the Bears in Sacks

• Ahmad Poole -- Junior DT, 300-pound run-stopper that clogs the middle of LB's

Some areas of improvement I'm hoping Beard and his Staff are able to improve this offseason:

• The Offensive Line -- this is the most difficult prospect for lower-level FBS teams, but improving this O-Line across the board would be a massive positive. Need a group that can protect Deuce, as well as get a better push in the run game -- where the Bears improved as the season went on, but was really rough early. Whether through the portal or organically with this grou

• The Secondary -- there were highs and lows all season long for the Bears Secondary, but there were a lot of seniors starting here that will need to be replaced. Limiting big plays is an area of concern.

• The Defensive Line -- this was probably one of the strengths of Mo State's defense this season, but continuing to find guys/develop guys that can be destructive on the DL is a separator in CUSA and would give them an edge over their competition.

As far as what Bowl Games Missouri State is going to get placed in -- I'm not very good with predictions, and since we are a fill-in team, there's less guidelines for what Bowl they'd give us. I've seen predictions of Mo State playing against Arkansas State -- which I'd be all for, neighboring state mini-rivalry. I've seen a projection against Georgia Southern -- I don't know anything about them, but sure why not. And I've seen one with us taking on Utah State which I think would be a fun match-up.

Regardless of what Bowl we play in, I'm just happy to see my alma mater play in an actual bowl game. I was at MSU in the days where it was a chore to fill half the stadium on a Gameday, so to see them now in FBS, playing against teams like USC and SMU, competing in the CUSA conference race, and now playing in a Bowl Game -- it's awesome. Proud to be a Bear -- hoping Coach Beard and company stick around and continue building this program into a potential G5 contender in the coming years.