Missouri football changes date for 2025 season opener, following recent trend for Tigers
For the fourth straight season, college football is coming a little bit quicker to Columbia.
Missouri football has moved its 2025 season openerup two days, meaning the Tigers will now play Central Arkansas to begin the new campaign on Thursday, Aug. 28 on Faurot Field. The bulk of the Week 1 slate of games is scheduled for that following Saturday.
The game will now kick-off at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28 in Columbia.
The move has become the norm in mid-Missouri, as the Tigers have now played on the Thursday before the Week 1 schedule for four straight years beginning with a matchup against Louisiana Tech to kick off the 2022 season.
Mizzou representatives have explained the decision to move the season-opener to Thursday as a way to encourage attendance before Labor Day weekend, with the holiday being celebrated on the first Monday of September and typically overlapping with the opening weekend of college football games.
“We’re excited to keep this new tradition going with Mizzou football opening its season on a Thursday night in CoMo leading into the Labor Day weekend,” Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz said in a news release.
Missouri plays six straight home games to open the 2025 season, which appears to be the most consecutive games on Faurot Field in school history.
After facing Central Arkansas, a Football Championship Subdivision team, the Tigers will revive the Border War rivalry on the gridiron when Kansas visits Columbia on Sept. 6. Louisiana visits Sept. 13, before the Tigers open their SEC campaign against South Carolina on Sept. 20.
