​SPRINGFIELD–Missouri State football is fresh off its bye week and gearing up to go on the road to face Western Kentucky to begin the Conference USA portion of its schedule.Both the Bears (1-3) and Hilltoppers (1-4) had a difficult time with their non-conference opponents, but that’s due to the caliber of competition. MSU opened the season with a 50-0 loss to then-8th ranked Texas A&M and narrowly fell to No. 22 Southern Methodist, 34-24 two weeks ago. As for WKU, they had the misfortune of playing No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Indiana, in back-to-back weeks, and got outscored 108-20. However, with those one-sided matchups off the table, now, fans of both teams should be able to get a clear picture of what their team is and can do in the league.”There’s only two teams in this conference that have gone on to play two top-25 teams this season, that’s us and Western Kentucky,” said Bears Head Coach Casey Woods. “So, I think coming into conference play here, we’ll have a truer picture of who we are. This is gonna be an enormous game for both of us.”Coach Woods’ re-emphasized how important it is for the program to see success as the Bears start the gauntlet of conference play.”Since the very beginning of this thing we said we wanted to play our best ball by conference play. We wanted to be playing meaningful games in November. This game will be a real barometer of both of those goals that we’ve kinda set forth.”Looking closer at this matchup, history is not on the side of MO State.The Bears are just 2-9 in the all-time series against the Hilltoppers, and, it’s been more than four decades since MSU beat WKU.”It’s been 41 years since we’ve beaten Western Kentucky, right?” Coach Woods said. “It’s been 42 years since Joe Handimeyer went into Bowling Green and came out with a victory in 1984, so I was in diapers.”The odds of a MO State victory get a little longer, when you take a look at Western Kentucky’s record at home under Head Coach Tyson Helton.”They’ve got like a 25-10 record over the course of the last five years in that place, and our football team has got to be focused on what it is we want to accomplish on this trip,” said Coach Woods.However, if there is one silver lining the Bears can see in their favor, it’s the fact that WKU has had to play on the road four of their first five games, and, most notably, the Hilltoppers lost their Conference USA open to New Mexico State, during that stretch.”They’ve gone to Nevada, they’ve gone to Georgia, to Indiana, to New Mexico State. An enormous challenge I think for their team just from a logistical standpoint.”The Bears and Hilltoppers will kickoff at 6 p.m. on CBS Sports Network. It’ll be the fourth time Missouri State will be on national television, this fall.Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOLR – OzarksFirst.com.