The Missouri State High School Football Championships will be moving to Columbia, Mo., for the next five years.
The University of Missouri and City of Columbia was one of three towns that proposed bids to host the state championships. Missouri State and Springfield was another, while the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis put in a request to host the 8-man and 11-man Class 6 championship for 2018.
Both Missouri State and Missouri proposed to host both weekends and the Columbia school won.
In recent years, the two towns played host to the state championships in alternating years due to the Missouri Tigers playing Arkansas in football the Friday after Thanksgiving.
This past year, Plaster Stadium in Springfield hosted the Class 6 and 8-man title games, while Missouri hosted the Class 1-5 games. The year prior, Missouri State and Missouri flipped title games.
The 2016 and 2017 title games in Columbia were the first at the school since hosting the Class 3-5 championships in 1994.
MSHSAA Communication Director Jason West said that due to football start date moving back a week, the only conflict that could arise is if Missouri moves its game vs. Arkansas from a Friday to Saturday.
If that is the case, a secondary location in Columbia — one of the three public high schools — would likely host the state title games.
The state championship game spent 20 years in St. Louis, but following the exit of the Rams to Los Angeles, the state finals were also moved.
Also announced with the football move, was that the volleyball finals will stay in Cape Girardeau for the next two years, running through 2020.
After the end of the contract, Cape Girardeau will have served as the host site for eight years, first getting the finals in 2012. Prior to that, Kansas City was the host site for four years — which followed 20 years in Warrensburg.
Also bidding to host the state championships in volleyball was Hickman High School in Columbia and Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.
Late last year, MSHSAA announced host sites for cross country, track and field and wrestling — the latter two locations not changing. Cross Country moves from the Oak Hill Golf Complex in Jefferson City to Father Tolton Catholic High School in Columbia in 2019.