No. 19 Missouri Visits No. 24 Mississippi State Saturday on SEC Network

OriginalGlobal Sportscast deskSep 25, 2026 · 16:56 UTC

The short version

Missouri (No. 19) visits Mississippi State (No. 24) Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, at 6:45 p.m. CT in Starkville.
The game airs on the SEC Network and streams via ESPN.
FanDuel lists Mississippi State as a 6-point favorite with an over-under of 58.5.
The programs have met six times overall and this is their fifth meeting as SEC members.
Missouri won last season's matchup 49-27, aided by two interceptions returned for touchdowns.

The Tigers head to Davis Wade Stadium as 6-point underdogs against a ranked Bulldogs team in the fifth all-time SEC meeting between the programs.

Missouri and Mississippi State are set to meet Saturday, September 26, 2026, at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field in Starkville, Mississippi. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on the SEC Network and available to stream through ESPN's platforms.

Missouri enters the matchup ranked No. 19, while Mississippi State sits at No. 24. According to FanDuel, the Bulldogs are favored by 6 points, with the over-under set at 58.5. Odds are subject to change.

Despite being conference partners in the Southeastern Conference for 15 seasons, this will be only the fifth meeting between the schools as SEC members, and just the sixth matchup in the history of the two programs. Three of those meetings have come within the last three years. The teams first played in 1981 and 1984, long before either was linked by conference affiliation.

Their first game as SEC opponents came in 2015, during what turned out to be Gary Pinkel's final season as Missouri's head coach. The Tigers began that year ranked and started 4-1 before dropping four straight conference games, the last of them a home loss to Mississippi State. That Bulldogs team was quarterbacked by Dak Prescott and finished the season 9-4.

The programs did not meet again until the final game of the 2020 COVID-affected season, which was Eli Drinkwitz's first at Missouri and Mike Leach's first at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs scored 51 points in that game. Leach later passed away, and the Mississippi State program subsequently struggled to find its footing.

Missouri returned to Starkville during Mississippi State's 2-10 season in 2024, a year in which the Tigers went on to win 10 games. Missouri led 28-13 at halftime and controlled time of possession in the second half on the way to a 19-point victory.

Last season's meeting in Columbia was closer than the final score suggested. With Matt Zollers playing quarterback for Missouri, Ahmad Hardy had a big rushing performance. Two Missouri interceptions were returned for touchdowns, helping the Tigers pull away for a 49-27 win.

Mississippi State now carries considerable optimism into this year's matchup, with the Bulldogs ranked and installed as home favorites against a Missouri team that is also ranked. The winner would add a conference victory against a ranked division of the SEC slate, with both programs looking to strengthen their position early in the season.