Watch Missouri State’s Ryan Beard’s press conference ahead of Ball State
Missouri State football coach Ryan Beard spoke to the media following the team’s loss to Montana in Week 1 and previewed his team’s Week 2 visit to Ball State.
The Missouri State football team will face its annual FBS opponent on Saturday afternoon when it travels to play Ball State.
As an FCS program, the Bears receive a guaranteed payment for games against an FBS team. Such games benefit the school’s annual athletic budget. In fiscal year 2022, the $425,000 guaranteed payment the Bears received represented about 27.1% of the revenue the program generated, net of direct institutional support.
Once the Bears move up to the FBS and Conference USA in 2025, they are expected to receive higher guaranteed payments.
Guaranteed payment for football team Missouri State vs. Ball State
Ball State is paying Missouri State $325,000 to play Saturday’s game in Muncie, Indiana.
More: Can Missouri State AD Patrick Ransdell bring Mizzou to Springfield? What he said about scheduling.
What are the future guaranteed salaries of the Missouri State football team?
All game contracts, with the exception of the 2027 game in Cincinnati, were signed before Missouri State announced its entry into Conference USA and the FBS ranks.
Missouri State will likely try to renegotiate each game under the contract in hopes of getting the typical FBS rate, similar to the seven-figure deal it struck with Cincinnati.
The Bears recently paid $150,000 to get out of their 2025 opening game against Arkansas, for which Missouri State originally would have received $500,000. The Bears will likely get a replacement game where they will receive at least double what the Razorbacks were originally willing to pay and refused to increase.
- 2026 – @ Kansas State ($450,000)
- 2027 – @ Cincinnati ($1.125 million)
- 2027 – @ Kansas ($500,000)
- 2029 – @Mizzou ($550,000)
- 2030 – @ Tulsa ($400,000)
- 2032 – @Tulsa ($435,000)
- 2033 – @Mizzou ($550,000)
Missouri State will also receive $300,000 from Marshall under a home-and-home agreement that begins with the Bears coming to Marshall in 2025 and the Thundering Hurd coming to Springfield in 2026.
How much will the Missouri State football team earn in future playing contracts as a Conference USA program?
Missouri State’s first seven-figure contract for a game against Cincinnati is just the beginning. The Bears will be getting much bigger contracts in the future.
Here are the dollar amounts Group of 5 programs took home in games against power conference opponents last week:
- Western Kentucky @ Alabama – $1.9 million
- Fresno State @ Michigan – $1.85 million
- Colorado State @ Texas – $1.8 million
- UTEP @ Nebraska – $1.65 million
- Kent State @ Pittsburgh – $1.1 million
- Miami (Ohio) @ Northwestern – $1.1 million
In addition to the seven-figure contracts, Missouri State can play more than one of these games in a season. The Bears get even more money for those games.
What will Missouri State’s future football contracts with Group of 5 programs look like?
It’s a rarity for Missouri State to play against Group 5 teams. This is the Bears’ first game since 2019, when they lost to Tulane. They also played Memphis and Arkansas State during the Dave Steckel era. In the near future, you’ll see Missouri State schedule more out-of-conference games with teams from the Sun Belt, MAC, American and Mountain West.
Future deals with Group of 5 opponents will now more likely include home-and-away trips to Springfield with no guaranteed payment. It will look more like Missouri State’s home-and-away deal with ACC program SMU, where they will play one game in Springfield and one in Dallas. Don’t expect Missouri State to do many home-and-away deals with SEC, Big Ten, ACC or Big 12 programs often.
