In the fourth quarter on a Saturday afternoon last September, the Missouri State Bears were holding on to a late lead against nationally-ranked Illinois State.

The Redbirds drove the ball to the MSU 15 and were going to attempt a game-tying field goal in the final seconds.

MSU was 2-1 at the time, and a win over a Top 10 program would be one of the biggest wins in program history.

The crowd was noticeably tense.

Illinois State lined up from 32 yards out. The Bears rushed immediately at the snap. Kicker Sam Fenlason made contact and sent the ball airborne. But not for long.

Missouri State's Eric Johnson was able to get a hand on the ball and send it floating short of the uprights. The Bears pulled off the historic win.

Missouri State players rushed from the sideline onto the field in joy. Players were hugging and celebrating. It finally appeared that the MSU football program was capable of being a playoff contender.

It showed head coach Dave Steckel the type of excitement the program could create.

“I’m not living in the past but did you see that enthusiasm and support?” the Bears’ head coach said. “Former players were there, players’ families were excited and the students who did stay there were excited.”

As big of a win as it appeared to be at the time, the Bears only won one of the final seven games of the season to finish the year 4-7 while the program missed the postseason for the 28th consecutive year.

With dwindling attendance and lack of success, critics regularly ask why the university still has a football program at all.

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The News-Leader ran a series of Missouri State athletics fan satisfaction surveys in early June to find out how fans felt about the state of the different programs.

Missouri State football yielded the worst results while a common question asked by fans was "why does Missouri State even have a football program?" Those who publicly asked the question declined to comment or could not be reached for an interview.

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But if you ask Missouri State President Clif Smart why the program continues to exist despite its lack of public support, it doesn't sound like football is going anywhere.

"I am never going to eliminate football," Smart said. "I would rather be fired than be the president who got rid of football."

Smart became the university's 11th president when he took over in June 2011. Since then, he has never seen the program finish a season with a winning record. The last time the Bears finished above .500 was in 2009 under Terry Allen.

Allen was let go after the 2014 season and the university hired Steckel — who had success running one of the top defenses in the country at Mizzou — as the Bears' 20th head coach in program history.

The Bears are entering their fifth season with Steckel as their head coach. In his four years, the Bears have yet to win more than four games in a single season.

But it's not all about wins, losses and revenue in Smart's eyes. Having a football program, he believes, raises the profile of the university.

"We're a major state university with about 26,000 students," Smart said. "I bet there's not a single major state university that doesn't have football. That's what we are. I think a part of that is having a robust athletics program, and that includes football."

In 2018, the Bears started out the season 4-2 and looked to be a serious playoff contender with five weeks left in the regular season, only to lose the remainder of their games.

The 2018 season also saw the program finish with the least amount of total revenue since the 2015 season — which was also Steckel's first season as the Bears' head coach.

According to data collected from the last five seasons, the program is making less money than ever as the cost of operating the program has increased over that time.

In 2014 — the program's final season under Allen — the program's total expenses for the season were about $2.47 million. That number increased to about $3.2 million the next season as the program invested more in staff salaries, part-time employees, supplies and other expenses.

Total expenses have increased each year under Steckel. From the $3.2 million in 2015, expenses increased to about $3.5 million in 2018.

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Last season, Missouri State football lost the most money it has in the last five years when its revenue less expenses equaled a loss of just under $2.7 million.

But Smart still sees the benefits that a successful football program could bring.

"I think the rewards of having a winning program would outweigh saving a million dollars and allocating it to other things," Smart said. "I think the answer is to not quit trying."

The football program has also survived multiple times when the university looked to make budget cuts within the athletics department — including as recently as 2017, when the university opted to swap field hockey for beach volleyball.

In a 2017 Athletics Budget Work Group document recently obtained by the News-Leader, football was the second-ranked men's athletic program according to an evaluation process that included factors such as cost savings, attendance and student interest, academic success, conference affiliation, history of athletic success and quality and commitment to facilities.

The factors were not all weighted equally. The financial impact was given a weight of 50% while the other factors were given a weight of 8.33%.

The work group tiered the different programs at the university by how they graded out at each of the different factors. For men's sports, football was only ranked behind men's basketball.

One person who knows what a successful football program can do for a university is the man in charge of the Bears right now.

Before taking over at MSU, Steckel helped Mizzou go from 4-7 in his first year to playing in the Cotton Bowl and Citrus Bowl in each of his last two seasons.

“What I’ve seen from my time up north is that when you start winning, enrollment goes up and brings more money to the university,” Steckel said. “All those great things happen but it starts with me. We have to win. Football is good for the community and to the school. Football teaches so much about life to the players. Personally, I think it is the American sport now. Why wouldn’t you want to have the American sport at your university?”

Steckel has attempted to promote the football program since his arrival at Missouri State. Of course, he has his “Bear Up” slogan — a slogan that he says means “to encourage and support.” He is active on social media and in-person supporting other university programs, both athletic and educational.

Smart said Steckel played a role in helping the university land a multi-million-dollar gift from Robert Gourley toward the expansion of Glass Hall — the university’s College of Business building.

“Anything that touches the program is important to me whether it be donors or whether it be the trainer or the equipment guy,” Steckel said. “My role is to do my job. My job as the head football coach is to take care of my players and anything that touches the program and part of that is doing whatever I can to promote this program. I love this program, I love this school and I love this job.”

Unfortunately, fans don't seem to yet share that love.

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Last season, Missouri State had its lowest average attendance per home game since 1988. However, that counts a Thursday game that had to be moved to the morning during a school day due to potential severe weather. Only 1,284 fans showed up to the 11 a.m. weekday kickoff.

But the season before didn't produce much better attendance numbers as an average of 8,395 fans made their way into Plaster Stadium per game. That was also the worst average turnout since 1988.

“We need fans there,” Steckel said. “You play different when it’s a scrimmage versus a practice. Why? Because people are in the stands.”

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Missouri State enters the 2019 season picked to finish last in the Missouri Valley Football Conference as it faces one of the most difficult schedules in the nation along with questions about its offensive line.

The goal for both Steckel and Smart is to develop a winning program that can give the university the benefits they both desire. In the end, they don’t feel like giving up on the program would be the best outcome.

“My goal before I leave is that we have a winning football program,” Smart said. “We just have to keep working to refine and work on the accomplishments of the last four years. I think we’re going to get there; I’d like to get there this year."