Conference USA will add Missouri State as a full conference member on July 1, 2025, the conference announced Friday.

The move will grow CUSA to 12 members in 2025, including the additions of Kennesaw State this summer and Delaware next year. It will also grow the Football Bowl Subdivision to 136 members.

“The institution boasts a great tradition in athletics and academics that will strengthen and further position our membership for long term success in the national landscape,” commissioner Judy MacLeod said in a statement. “We look forward to our partnership with President Clif Smart, incoming President Dr. Biff Williams, Director of Athletics Kyle Moats, and their entire leadership team.”

Missouri State has finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference All-Sports Trophy for three consecutive years. The football program is coming off a 4-7 season under first-year coach Ryan Beard, but the Bears reached the FCS playoffs with consecutive top-15 finishes under Bobby Petrino in 2020 and 2021. The men’s basketball team last reached the NCAA Tournament in 1999. The women’s basketball team reached two Final Fours in 1992 and 2001.

CUSA has been in expansion mode since late 2021, when the trickle-down effect of Texas and Oklahoma’s announced move to the SEC saw CUSA raided by the American Athletic Conference and the Sun Belt. CUSA fell from 14 to five members but has since added Liberty, New Mexico State, Jacksonville State, Sam Houston, Kennesaw State, Delaware and now Missouri State. MacLeod told The Athletic last year that the league wanted to get to 12 members.

With new FBS requirements that include a $5 million entrance fee, which Delaware and Missouri State will pay, this could be the league’s last move for the foreseeable future.

“We are so excited for the opportunities that CUSA membership will bring to our university, our student-athletes, our coaches and our fans,” Moats said in a statement. “This move represents a transition to a national brand and a platform that will help raise the profile of Missouri State University and the city of Springfield. The steps we have taken over the past 15 years to invest in a successful broad-based athletics program have prepared us for this long-awaited moment.”

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