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For the second-straight year, Mississippi State won't play a home SEC night game

Wanted to watch the Bulldogs take on an SEC foe under the lights at home? ESPN says "too bad."
ByAndrew Miller|
Sep 27, 2025; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs cheer team during the first half against the Tennessee Volunteers at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. Mandatory Credit: Wesley Hale-Imagn Images
Sep 27, 2025; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs cheer team during the first half against the Tennessee Volunteers at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. Mandatory Credit: Wesley Hale-Imagn Images | Wesley Hale-Imagn Images

Mississippi State football will have to wait until at least 2026 before they play a conference game under the lights in Starkville. The SEC announced their kickoff times for games played on October 25, and the Bulldogs will have a day game when they host the No. 21 Texas Longhorns on that Saturday.

The Bulldogs' 2025 Homecoming Game, Mississippi State will take on Texas at either 2:30 PM CT with the game airing on ESPN or at 3:15 PM CT with the game airing on the SEC Network.

In either case, it'll be another afternoon kickoff for a conference game in Starkville, and that means that officially, State will go without playing a home SEC game at night for the second-straight season. The Bulldogs already played a home conference game in the afternoon this season against Tennessee, and their final two SEC home games against Georgia and Ole Miss are already locked-in as 11:00 AM CT kickoffs.

State's matchup with Texas was the last opportunity to get an SEC game at home played at night, but ABC/ESPN opted to put it in the afternoon slate, instead giving night slate designations to Texas A&M at LSU and Tennessee at Kentucky. 2024 was the first season since 2004 that the Bulldogs didn't play a home SEC night game, and now they'll go back-to-back years without one.

Mississippi State is necessarily alone when it comes to not seeing a night time conference game at home in 2025. Tennessee, Florida, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt have yet to play one and are not guaranteed one the rest of the way (though all still have to chance at one). But of those teams, only Vanderbilt also went without a night SEC game at home in 2024. If the 'Dores are granted an SEC night game later this year, the Bulldogs will be without company in this department.

It's not hard to figure out why the Bulldogs aren't getting an SEC game under the lights at Davis Wade Stadium. They're coming off a 2-10 season, and while they're much better this year, they're in the midst of a 14-game conference losing streak. They aren't a program the neutral observer is eager to watch, and therefore they aren't a program that TV executives are eager to give primetime slots.

But seeing as how a Kentucky team that is clearly the SEC's worst in 2025 is set to play consecutive conference games in primetime at home, it's hard to use the lack of success argument against the Bulldogs. Yes, the Wildcats have more recently won a league game, but there's no pretending they're somehow a better draw than State at the moment. Everything we've seen this year suggests State is more likely to play an exciting game.

It's a pretty unfair draw, but there's no changing it now. Ultimately, Mississippi State is going to get the short-end of the stick until they remove any doubt about the program having turned the corner. And that's going to take winning.

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