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How a six-team swap landed Mizzou football's Thursday opener vs. Louisiana Tech

COLUMBIA, Mo. — There was a time not long ago when Missouri planned to open its 2022 football season on the road in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to play the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders.

Athletics director Desireé Reed-Francois and football coach Eli Drinkwitz shared a similar reaction: “Not happening.”

They found 1.3 million ways to make that problem go away.

Originally agreed upon in 2015, the Mizzou-Middle Tennessee game was part of three-game series for 2016, 2022 and 2023. This fall, Mizzou also has a Week 2 trip to Kansas State on the schedule, plus the Southeastern Conference opener on the road two weeks later at Auburn.