With the 2024 football schedule set in stone, Missouri is now turning its attention to the following seasons opponents. On Saturday afternoon, Miami (OH) announced their 2025 non-conference schedule. This comes with significance, as Missouri was set to make the trip to Yager Stadium, but weren't listed on the schedule release.
Our non-conference schedule for 2025 is set‼️
— Miami Football (@MiamiOHFootball) July 26, 2024
See what Athletic Director, David Sayler has to say about the 2025 schedule⬇️
🔗: https://t.co/p82MDtnwZb pic.twitter.com/c1w9Zozohc
Missouri and Miami signed a contract for their non-conference game back in April 2016. According to the agreement, Missouri will have to pay $750k if this cancelation occurred between 2020 and 2023. If it happened this past year, the fee will be $1 million.
There was speculation that this cancelation may have occurred due to the recent success of Miami, but it's hard to believe Missouri was "afraid" of this game. Rather, it makes more sense that there were mistakes made during previous leadership, and the new group is attempting to make up for them. A similar mistake is seen in the form of Missouri's trip to UMass this season.
With a new opening in their schedule, let's take a look at some options for Mizzou in 2025. It's worth noting that Missouri is currently set to host three home games in the non-conference. These contests will feature Kansas, Louisiana, and UMass.
After parsing through https://t.co/h2lpj7taho, here are the G5 teams that don’t seem to have enough noncon games scheduled in 2025:
— Quentin Corpuel (@quentincorpuel) July 27, 2024
Tulsa
FIU
Jax St
Kenn St
Liberty
NM State
UTEP
W Kentucky
UConn
Bowling Green
Kent St
Nevada
UNLV
Wyoming
Ga St
Marshall
So Miss
ULM
In all likeliness, Missouri will be scheduling their fourth non-conference game with one of these "group of five" teams. It would make the most sense for Missouri to host a fourth game in 2025, as this revenue would cancel out the money spent on its buy out of the Miami game.
One of the more attractive options is the Liberty Flames, who are on the heals of a 13-1 season that saw them make an appearance in the Fiesta Bowl against Oregon. It is unknown if Missouri want to schedule a tough game, or an easier opponent, but it sure would be fun to host Liberty in 2025 based on the recent trajectory of their program.
Only time will tell, but it should be fun to see what Missouri does with this situation. It is positive to see mistakes made from the past that are now being corrected. It wouldn't have made sense to make the trip to Miami (OH), and now Missouri holds the power in scheduling another home non-conference game in 2025.