A Bigger Stage: MSU officials say new conference membership is paying dividends

The end of August marked a new beginning of athletic competition for Missouri State University as the Bears football team took the field in Los Angeles against a true heavyweight of college football: the University of Southern California Trojans.

While the Aug. 30 game was far from a successful one for MSU, as the team endured a 73-13 drubbing at the hands of USC, the contest’s significance for the Springfield-based university went far beyond the final score. It marked its first football game as a member of Conference USA, which MSU officially joined July 1 as a full-league member. The university announced its acceptance of an invitation in May 2024 to join CUSA, which signaled its exit earlier this year from the Missouri Valley Conference. It had been an MVC member since 1990.

“To be able to have the institution spotlighted on national television at a historic venue such as the (Los Angeles Memorial) Coliseum, I think was a monumental moment for
Missouri State in general,” said Patrick Ransdell, MSU director of athletics, who was among those in attendance. “You could not have asked for a more prominent location.”

The game was televised nationally on the Big Ten Network. Ransdell confirmed MSU received $1.15 million from USC to play the nonconference game in LA. He said most programs are currently paid an average of $1.1 million-$1.3 million for traveling to play nonconference games.

With the conference change, the Bears football team is now part of the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. It joins Delaware – also a new CUSA member – as the only schools to transition this season to FBS from the Football Championship Subdivision, a subset of D-I football. MSU’s athletics programs in football, baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, women’s soccer, softball, women’s tennis, women’s track and field and volleyball have full CUSA membership.

Ransdell said MSU continues to compete in the MVC in swimming and diving and is playing men’s soccer in the American Conference. CUSA doesn’t sponsor those sports at this time, he said.

While noting the university wished the game had a different final score, Ransdell said the experience of being on such a big stage in such an environment was memorable.

“We had over 125 people on a Friday-night alumni event in LA, and that was a mix of people from the West Coast back to Springfield and for everybody in between,” he said. “But at the end of the day, that’s why you play a lot of these type of games right out of the gate because you’re probably going to run into some issues the first game of the year.”

MSU President Richard “Biff” Williams was among those in attendance at the game and alumni events in LA. While he said via email he may not be able to attend every road game in future seasons, doing so this year is a priority for him.

“This is an important opportunity to build relationships across Conference USA and establish a strong presence from the start,” he said.

Williams said it was an honor for him to be part of such a historic moment at the game, adding the experience “reaffirmed that we’re right where we belong.”

“I was thrilled not only for our coaches, players and fans, but for the entire Missouri State community,” he said. “Moments like these reflect just how far we’ve come and the level at which we now compete.”

MSU is set to travel this week to West Virginia for its Sept. 6 matchup against the Marshall Thundering Herd before the team makes its Sept. 13 home debut at Robert W. Plaster Stadium against Southern Methodist University.

Former MSU President Clif Smart last year said the move to CUSA will be “budget neutral” for the university, noting MSU athletics expects to spend an additional $5 million annually as part of its new conference, up from $31 million, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. He said the funding would go toward scholarships, personnel, travel and student-athlete funding, and MSU expects to offset the new expenses through additional revenue.

Ransdell, who began his role at MSU in August 2024, said the athletics department budget is now around $35 million, adding the CUSA revenue “might be better than what we hoped.” Williams said the NCAA will finalize its fiscal 2025 audit in February 2026.

“All in all, we feel like our budget is in a good spot and certainly something that is in the same line of the rest of Conference USA,” Ransdell said.

Revenue for the football team is already in a good spot with the season barely underway, university officials say. Ransdell credits the CUSA membership and transition to FBS as drivers of the revenue boost.

“We’re already almost $100,000 more than we generated all last year in football,” Ransdell said. “Last year was the low $200,000s and this year we’re already well over $300,000.

“We haven’t even kicked off at home yet. So, we’re excited about that,” he added.

Additionally, football season tickets are nearing a record high, according to officials. Ransdell said the all-time high of 1,570 season tickets sold in 2007 should be passed before this season’s first home game.

But that record needs to continue to be surpassed in subsequent seasons, officials say.

“We need to have season tickets well over 3,500, 4,000,” Ransdell says. “We need to have revenue that closes in on $1 million in the next couple of years. But this is a really, really good start.”

Williams said joining CUSA significantly elevates MSU’s profile athletically, academically and institutionally. It positions the university in new and strategically important markets, he said, as competing in conference member states such as Florida, Texas and Tennessee broadens its reach and visibility. He said that will positively impact student recruitment and enrollment.

Stadium upgrades
MSU officials said last year that attorney and alum Tom Strong’s $5 million donation helped the school make the move to CUSA. Ransdell said $3.5 million of Strong’s donation was applied toward a $5 million fee MSU had to pay to the NCAA for the Bears football team to move into the FBS. The other $1.5 million is intended for planned upgrades to Plaster Stadium. The funding will largely go toward a first-phase $4 million locker room project, according to past reporting.

“That funding for the locker room project, the vast majority of it’s still there,” he said, noting the university has focused on other upgrades at the stadium this offseason.

Those include new turf installation, LED lighting, paint, signage, suite renovations and technology upgrades to accommodate television broadcasts for ESPN and CBS Sports Network, which will air CUSA games this season. Additionally, MSU is completing the removal and replacement of the maroon aluminum bleacher seatbacks located on the upper tier of the west bleachers.

“There’s been a lot of visual things that have happened and some things that are going to enhance the game-day experience,” Ransdell said, noting the stadium improvements total around $10 million. “Take lights, for example. Our lighting wasn’t sufficient for the national TV broadcast. It was OK for streaming, but it was not OK for a national TV broadcast.”

Ransdell said the stadium was the top priority for the department’s facility improvements, adding most of the other facilities are “good to go.”

“There are some things that we want to address moving forward now that we can maybe get our initial football investments done,” he said. “When football moves out of foresight from a new locker room situation, then we’re going to be able to address some locker room situations for some of our women’s sports, like track and cross country, women’s soccer, things of that nature.”

Williams said future athletic improvements will lean heavily on private donations.

Student attendance
MSU is coming off an 8-4 record in its second season with Ryan Beard as head football coach. Home game attendance last season averaged over 9,600, up over its roughly 9,100 for the 2023 season, according to NCAA data. Stadium seating capacity is 17,500.

MSU officials recognize the importance of attracting more students to ballgames at all its venues, particularly football and men’s and women’s basketball.

“We need football to be successful in addition to both of our basketball programs,” Ransdell said, noting those home games collectively will total roughly 40 per season. “Those three sports are vital to our success moving forward across the board in athletics.”

Ransdell said MSU is investing in making Plaster Stadium and Great Southern Bank Arena, which hosts basketball contests, a more attractive place for students to attend games. Average home game attendance for men’s basketball was 2,085 and 2,257 for women’s basketball over the 2024-25 season, according to university data.

“We’ve kind of reinvested into our marketing and sales areas so that we can really get the word out better,” he said. “And we’ve invested into more in-game entertainment.”

The department recently announced a partnership with Elevate Entertainment LLC, naming the company as the official DJ partner for MSU athletics for the 2025 season, according to a news release. Terms of the partnership were not disclosed. Elevate Entertainment will serve as the on-field, in-game DJ for all Bears football home games and will also perform at Lady Bears and men’s basketball games, as well as most of the volleyball matches inside Hammons Student Center.

“Hopefully, it translates into just an overall better experience,” Ransdell said. “I want to see an increase certainly, and especially with our students, they are going to be a major focus. I’ll be honest, we can put on the greatest show on the planet, and if students aren’t there, then the energy is going to fall flat.”