Conference USA will add Missouri State as a full conference member on July 1, 2025, the conference announced Friday.

The move will grow CUSA to 12 members in 2025, including the additions of Kennesaw State this summer and Delaware next year. It will also grow the Football Bowl Subdivision to 136 members.

“The institution boasts a great tradition in athletics and academics that will strengthen and further position our membership for long term success in the national landscape,” commissioner Judy MacLeod said in a statement. “We look forward to our partnership with President Clif Smart, incoming President Dr. Biff Williams, Director of Athletics Kyle Moats, and their entire leadership team.”

Missouri State has finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference All-Sports Trophy for three consecutive years. The football program is coming off a 4-7 season under first-year coach Ryan Beard, but the Bears reached the FCS playoffs with consecutive top-15 finishes under Bobby Petrino in 2020 and 2021. The men’s basketball team last reached the NCAA Tournament in 1999. The women’s basketball team reached two Final Fours in 1992 and 2001.

CUSA has been in expansion mode since late 2021, when the trickle-down effect of Texas and Oklahoma’s announced move to the SEC saw CUSA…

Louisiana is banning licensed sportsbooks in the state from offering prop bets on college athletes.

The ban will go into effect Aug. 1, 2024, at 8 a.m. local time.

“It is the intention of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board to protect the integrity of sports betting as well as the safety and integrity of college athletes,” Louisiana Gaming Control Board chairman Ronnie Johns said in a statement. “We feel that this order accomplishes that goal.”

Prop bets allow fans to bet on how many points or rebounds a basketball player might have, or yards or touchdowns a football player might have, instead of or in conjunction with a game’s outcome or spread.

Bettors in Louisiana and the 37 other states where sports betting is legal can still bet on the totals, point spreads and outcomes of games. Prop bets on “full team statistical outcomes” will still be allowed in Louisiana.

Vermont, Ohio and Maryland banned college prop bets recently and other states have expressed an openness to bans or an examination of the issue within their states. Colorado, Arizona, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Oregon have rules in place prohibiting them. Illinois, Connecticut and Iowa don’t allow them for in-state teams.

Last week, NCAA president Charlie Baker released a statement calling…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Bracket Watch HQ is also home to a 5-year-old, who has recently discovered a new favorite song. Which means we’ve been forced to listen to it on an endless Spotify loop:

Yes, for those of you without children or an aversion to cartoons, that’s Reel 2 Real’s relentlessly dumb but inescapably catchy 1993 hit “I Like to Move It,” remade for the “Madagascar” movie franchise. You’re welcome for the earworm.

It also reminds us that things are always changing and growing in unexpected ways. Take the NCAA Tournament, for example (segue alert!). Dana O’Neil reported this week that tournament expansion remains a very likely outcome, but the field would only grow by a modest four to eight teams. Perhaps we’ve reached the acceptance stage of our grief, but we can move forward with a few more play-in games if that’s what it takes to keep the barbarians at the gate.

It’s also time for teams to make their moves in our latest mock bracket, now just nine days from Selection Sunday. Conference tournaments have begun, and the power conferences get going with their postseasons next…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

In 1986, religious scholar James P. Carse published an influential book called “Finite and Infinite Games.” Finite games, in Carse’s definition, are those that have defined rules and declare winners and losers. The infinite game, on the other hand, is that which “changes rules, plays with boundaries and exists solely for the purpose of continuing the game.” The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson wrote an insightful piece in 2022 about how Major League Baseball’s pursuit of solving the finite game through analytics damaged the infinite game — i.e., creating an enjoyable experience for fans to watch.

There is no game quite as finite as the NCAA Tournament, where the hopes and dreams of a school and its fans can be crushed in a single-elimination, 40-minute contest. But as we await another incredible tournament here on the first day of March (huzzah!), we have to wonder: Who is looking out for the infinite game?

In a recent interview with ESPN, NCAA president Charlie Baker indicated that he’s open to the idea of expanding the tournament if it’s “done with care and…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Charles McClelland’s first vote as a member of the men’s NCAA Tournament selection committee was whether to cancel the 2020 event because of COVID-19. In his second year on the committee, much of his time was spent discussing protocols to play the tournament without fans in the Indiana bubble.

So now that McClelland is the 2024 selection committee chairman and has to lead the group in sorting out a chaotic season, he can put things in perspective.

“Debating bubble teams is so much better than saying, ‘If somebody catches COVID, will we allow that team to participate or not?’” said McClelland, who is also the SWAC commissioner. “We’re actually talking basketball now, which is what we all enjoy.”

The committee convened last week and talked a lot of basketball before releasing its initial top 16 seeds. “The only problem,” McClelland joked, “is that the teams then went out and played games.”

Nine of the top 16, including the No. 1 and No. 2 overall seeds Purdue and UConn, have lost since the reveal. But that’s the 2023-24 season in a nutshell. While the committee…