MSU petitions NCAA for football bowl game eligibility

Patrick Ransdell: The biggest benefit to a bowl game is exposure.

After announcing Nov. 10 that Missouri State University was planning to petition the NCAA for a postseason waiver on behalf of its football program, the school’s director of athletics said Nov. 19 that request has been submitted.

The waiver request is for the MSU Bears football team to be eligible for participation in a bowl game this season. The university joined Conference USA as a full-league member in July and, as a result, moved into the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision for the first time. It previously was a member of the Football Championship Subdivision.

As the Bears are amid a transition to the FBS from the FCS, they are ineligible this season for postseason play, according to NCAA rules.

However, with the team’s Nov. 8 victory over Liberty, MSU notched its sixth win of the season. The team is now 7-3 after defeating University of Texas-El Paso on Nov. 15 and is set to play Nov. 22, after press time for this publication, against Kennesaw State. Teams need at least six regular-season wins to be eligible for a bowl game, counting only one FCS opponent, according to the NCAA.

Ransdell said via email that the NCAA has yet to grant such a waiver request to any school.

“However, teams in transition have played in bowl games because not enough eligible teams qualified,” he said.

Recent instances include James Madison and Jacksonville State, both of which had their postseason waivers denied by the NCAA. However, each was able to participate in postseason play due to a lack of bowl-eligible teams, Ransdell said. If fewer than 82 teams are eligible by the end of the regular season, MSU could be considered, according to an NCAA rule.

Meghan Durham Wright, NCAA associate director of communications, declined to address MSU’s waiver request or a timetable for a response when reached by Springfield Business Journal.

Ransdell said he does not know how soon the NCAA will respond to the waiver request. The final day of the 2025 regular season is Nov. 29, and Ransdell said he expects to hear from the organization by no later than Dec. 7, when bowl game matchups are announced.

“The biggest benefit is exposure,” Ransdell said of benefits of being selected for postseason play, noting the bowl season is a “huge platform with great viewership.”

“Financially, it really depends on the bowl and the expenses associated with it,” he said.

A couple of Missouri politicians have weighed in to the NCAA. Both U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., and state Rep. Melanie Stinnett, R-Springfield, wrote letters to NCAA President Charlie Baker this month advocating for the organization to grant MSU’s waiver request.

In her letter, Stinnett calls the transitional policy that bars postseason play “outdated and inconsistent with the direction of modern college athletics.”

“The student-athletes at Missouri State have worked tirelessly to elevate their program and represent our state with integrity and excellence. They should not be denied the opportunity to compete in a bowl game because of an administrative decision made at the institutional level,” she wrote, adding the rule “unintentionally punishes athletes for circumstances entirely beyond their control.”

Burlison said in his letter that MSU has already satisfied every core FBS requirement, including scheduling, scholarships and facilities.

Ransdell isn’t making any predictions about MSU’s postseason fate, noting there’s a lot of football to be played.

“I think we have positioned ourselves as well as we possibly can,” he said.