This Saturday, Missouri State will host Illinois State and on Sunday Southeast Missouri will host Murray State. FCS or Football Championship Subdivision schools played some non-conference games in the fall and committed to a spring season in hopes the pandemic would have leveled off. The Bears will play an eight-game Missouri Valley schedule. The Redhawks will try a seven-game Ohio Valley schedule.
The MVC redrew the 2021 spring schedules for every school after Indiana State announced it would opt out of spring football this season.
Missouri State will play four home games: kicking off the league season Feb. 20 against Illinois State, hosting North Dakota State on March 6, welcoming Southern Illinois on March 27, and renewing its series with Youngstown State on April 10. Road games for the Bears will be at Western Illinois (Feb. 27), at South Dakota (March 13), at Northern Iowa (March 20), and at North Dakota (April 3).
Eight Ohio Valley Conference schools will play a seven-game league only schedule this spring. Eastern Kentucky opted out of playing. SEMO has been practicing since Jan. 11. SEMO was one of 17 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) programs (out of 127 overall) that decided to play at least one non-conference game last fall.
