Report: Missouri State AD Budgeting to Not Play OU Game on Sept. 5
Oklahoma players enter Memorial Stadium before a game.
PHOTO: USA Today
Financially speaking, Missouri State athletic director Kyle Moats is budgeting as if the Bears will not play the 2020 season opener at Oklahoma on Sept. 5, according to a report in Friday’s Springfield News-Leader.
The newspaper reports that Moats said in a virtual presentation that in a discussion with the Missouri State University Board of Governors, he expressed a hope that the game would still be played, but the university is moving forward with its fiscal year 2020-21 budget as if it will not receive the $600,000 payday from Oklahoma for playing at OU.
Moats said the MSU athletic department is already planning on a shortfall of $650,000 this year from the cancelation of the NCAA Tournament.
Missouri State is part of the NCAA’s Division I, but plays football in the FCS, or Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA).
Amid discussions of university cuts and other coming revenue reductions across the board for schools and athletic departments, Missouri State president Clif Smart warned about the impact losing football season would have.
“If we’re not playing football in the fall or we’re playing a limited amount of football, I think everyone’s going to see revised travel, game strategies and shortened seasons,” Smart said in the News-Leader report. “I think there’s money there. Ultimately, in the worst-case scenario, we might have to evaluate if some reserves should have to be used to make sure we’re not giving away the things that are really important to the university.”
Some of Smart’s ideas, such as playing home-and-home series against smaller opponents from within the region (he cited UMKC) rather than paying big guarantees for home games, are targeted at his school — but could also be applied universally.
“Our fans aren’t going to be thrilled about that,” he said, “but that might be a strategy that we have to adopt for a year. “Maybe we don’t play a 50-some-odd game baseball schedule; maybe we play 35. I think for next year, there are going to be drastic drawdowns of what athletics looks like at the university.”
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