Can Missouri State AD Patrick Ransdell get Mizzou to Springfield? What he said about scheduling.

New Missouri State athletic director Patrick Ransdell laughed when asked when he could get Mizzou down to Springfield to play in football or men's basketball.

Mizzou's never been to Springfield for football. The Tigers have refused to play in men's basketball since the Bears beat them in Columbia early in the magical 1998-99 season.

"I don't know," Ransdell said. "I might have to get on the phone with Laird (Veach)."

Ransdell's scheduling philosophy will be a focus as Missouri State begins to build its FBS schedules in future football seasons. The men's basketball fanbase hopes the schedule will improve under Cuonzo Martin.

More: What Missouri State AD Patrick Ransdell said about Plaster Stadium — the $100M question

Missouri State recently landed its first seven-figure guarantee payment by adding Cincinnati to its 2027 schedule. Cincy will reportedly pay Missouri State $1.125 million.

The Bears also have a handful of marquee home games on the docket with the ACC's Southern Methodist visiting Plaster Stadium in 2025 before Marshall comes to Springfield in 2026.

"I want to get good home games, especially in football, that's really important," Ransdell said. "Obviously, we're going through a transition but we need to put ourselves in a position about three, four years down the road as a Group of 5 program where someone's going to the playoff. Obviously, Liberty proved last year that it can be done in Conference USA and that's the goal. That's our benchmark."

Would Mizzou ever come to Springfield for a football or men's basketball game?

Mizzou has been willing to visit Missouri State to play women's basketball and baseball but has declined to in men's basketball. Football was a pipe dream until the FBS door opened.

The Tigers football program is willing to visit UMass this season as it begins a home-and-home that was agreed to by Jim Sterk, two athletic directors ago in Columbia. There's no telling if Mizzou would ever agree to some sort of three-or-four-for-one to come down to Springfield. Something like that would be worth it for Missouri State, even if it's not getting the SEC-level guarantee payment.

Missouri State football opened the 2017 season with a 72-43 loss to Mizzou in Columbia, the first matchup between the two in varsity action since 1923.

More: New Missouri State AD Patrick Ransdell contract details: Salary, buyout, incentives

Missouri State will continue to try and negotiate its future contracts for games the two planned for the football teams, both taking place in Columbia. With the FBS move, the Bears will get larger paychecks than what Mizzou agreed to pay for the 2029 and 2033 openers.

In men's basketball, who knows? It's unlikely Mizzou would want to risk coming down to Springfield and losing to the head coach it fired. Martin, when he was Mizzou's head coach, intended to bring the Tigers to Great Southern Bank Arena during the COVID-19-impacted years but that dream was quickly crushed when his scheduling comments went public.

Veach, the new Mizzou AD who was previously at Memphis, was asked this summer during a Tigers event in Springfield about the possibility of playing the Bears on the court.

"I would say that as an athletic director, I am typically very open-minded to those kind of conversations," Veach said. "I think that's the appropriate approach in the end. When it comes to scheduling, it's complex and ultimately every program has to do what's right for the program.

"It's not a yes or no kind of scenario. It depends on what's happening that year, what else is scheduled and a lot of things have to continue to sort of take place as we go through that. But we're obviously open-minded, particularly with an in-state school, that's an important approach."

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Can Missouri State AD Patrick Ransdell get Mizzou to Springfield? What he said about scheduling.