The idea of an HBCU school leaping into the cash cow business of big-time FBS college football is often a hot topic in black college sports debates. With Missouri State making the move from the Missouri Valley Conference to a newly rebuilt Conference USA. Have they effectively laid out a tangible blueprint for FCS HBCUs to follow?
Missouri State announced on Friday, May 10, 2024, that it has accepted an invitation to join Conference USA as a full-league member starting July 1, 2025.
With new FBS requirements that include a $5 million entrance fee, Missouri State will accept a $5 million donation from a “private individual” and forgo $2.5 million in media rights fees from the C-USA over 4 years.
According to a report from Footballscoop.com, The school has raised $1 million toward a $4.2 million effort to upgrade the football team’s locker room and weight room and has started a push to upgrade the school’s 17,500-seat football stadium.
A move to FBS football also requires an additional 22 scholarships to maintain Title IX compliance, Missouri State has already announced the addition of two new women’s sports programs that will utilize those scholarships.
The FBS has also replaced its attendance requirement with a scholarship requirement. Previously, FBS schools had to meet a minimum attendance requirement of an average of 15,000 people in actual or paid attendance per home football game which had to be met once in a rolling two-year period.
FBS schools must now provide 90% of the total number of allowable scholarships over a two-year rolling period across at least 16 sports, including football. Schools are required to offer at least 210 scholarships each year, amounting to no less than $6 million in athletics scholarships offered.
These requirements take effect on August 1, 2027, for existing FBS members and schools already transitioning to FBS membership. Schools applying to transition to FBS during or after the 2024-25 season will have to meet the requirement by the end of the two-year transition process.
What is missing from the Missouri State FBS move, is a tradition of winning football. The Bears of Springfield Missouri were in the same FCS conference as North Dakota State, the most dominant team in FCS football in recent years. Missouri State has had one winning season in the last 10 years, so it feels safe to say that moving to FBS should be perceived as more of a business decision than one based on how good the football team is.
Another piece of the puzzle is the blueprint of the FBS within the individual states across the country. Missouri, a state with 6.178 million people and two major metro areas, is only getting its second FBS school with the addition of Missouri State.
When you look at the makeup of our FCS HBCUs, none stick out as being in a state where FBS football doesn’t already have a significant footprint.
While the nuance of the FCS to FBS move can feel complex when you’re lost in the numbers. Missouri State heading to the C-USA provides the clearest blueprint of what it would look like for FCS HBCUs to leap into FBS football in the current landscape of the NCAA.
Schools like North Carolina A&T, Hampton, and Tennessee State are already playing outside the traditional HBCU conferences of the MEAC and SWAC, and have also shown the ability to fundraise major dollars. Could they or another school be an FBS conference invite away from putting the pieces together to become the first HBCU to play FBS football?