Liberty's side of this is a rebuild job for Jamey Chadwell, who's back for a 4th season after the program cratered from a 13-1 CUSA title and Fiesta Bowl appearance in 2023 to a losing record just two years later. Whatever line the market lands on here, it's pricing a Liberty team trying to prove 2025 was the aberration against a Missouri State team trying to prove 2025 wasn't a fluke.
The head-to-head history is short but pointed: these two only met for the first time last November, and Missouri State won it late — a Jacob Clark touchdown pass with 27 seconds left flipped a game Liberty looked to have in hand. That kind of finish tends to stick with a rebuilding program, and Chadwell's group will have circled this one since the schedule dropped.
Whether either team is playing for anything more than pride and bowl math by late November remains to be seen this far out — both are penciled in as regular-season finales ahead of the Dec. 4 CUSA Championship Game, so depending on how the fall breaks, this could double as playoff seeding or a get-right game for two teams that missed the mark. Either way, expect Robert W. Plaster Stadium to be loud for a program still riding the high of last year's breakthrough.