SPRINGFIELD, Mo–The Missouri State Bears have done all they can do on the field.
Now all that coach Bobby Petrino and his Bears can do is wait.
In our Bear Nation report, on the line a chance to advance into the FCS playoffs for the first time since 1990.
Missouri State beat Youngstown State 21-10 on a windy, rainy Saturday.
The victory improved the Bears spring record to 5-1, and a co-championship in the Valley Football Conference.
North Dakota State gets the automatic bid because the Bison beat the Bears head to head.
Petrino says it’s out of his hands, and the team will prepare just in case.
“Yea, I don’t know. We’re 5-and-1 in the best conference in the country. That’s about all I’ll say. We’ll see what happens. I really don’t know if we have a legitimate chance to get in the playoffs. Or we don’t. I have no idea. If we do have a legitimate chance we’ll have to do somethings. You know throw the ball around, condition, lift weights. We’ll certainly not do any contact practice but you have to work on your skills. If we do get that call a week from Sunday we’ll be ready to go out and practice hard,” said Petrino.
If this was a normal season, the Bears should be in.
But because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the playoff field has been cut to 16 teams.
Of those 16 spots, ten automatically go to conference champions.
That leaves the Bears fighting for one of the six at-large spots remaining.
The NCAA announces the field Sunday morning April 18th at 10:30 a.m. on ESPNU.
