College football: Michigan State vs. Eastern Michigan

Eastern Michigan wide receiver Tyler Allen dives over Michigan State safety RJ Williamson for a touchdown at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Mich., on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014. Michigan State defeated Eastern Michigan, 73-14. Patrick Record | The Ann Arbor News

YPSILANTI -- Michigan State is out; Missouri is in.

The Eastern Michigan football team's scheduled games against in-state rival Michigan State in 2016, and 2020 have been replaced with a pair of games at Missouri.

Back in 2009, MSU entered into a 10-year agreement with the three Michigan Mid-American Conference schools for a series of in-state games.

Eastern Michigan's athletic director at the time Derrick Gragg helped negotiate a deal that called for the Eagles to visit East Lansing in 2012, 2014 and 2016. The Spartans would visit Rynearson Stadium in 2020.

The contract also included a home-and-home for the school's basketball teams.

The EMU football team lost the most recent game to MSU 73-14 on Sept. 20. In 2012, it lost 23-7 at Spartan Stadium.

But the third away game in the football series did not include a game guarantee for the Eagles. A game guarantee is compensation for the smaller budget opponent to play at the larger opponent's stadium.

Michigan State paid EMU $650,000 to play at Spartan Stadium in 2012 and 2014.

"When I took over as athletic director, I wanted to assess the whole football program, and scheduling is a big part of that," Eastern Michigan athletic director Heather Lyke said. "This was not an ideal situation. We couldn't afford to play that game without a guarantee exchange."

Lyke, who took over as EMU's athletic director in July 2013, reached out to MSU athletic director Mark Hollis to discuss the series.

"I told them we will play you, but we know what the market is out there, we know what schools will pay," Lyke said. "We need to have that second game guarantee every year."

She said they came to the mutual decision to cancel both the 2016 and 2020 games. With both sides pulling out, neither program will have to pay the $500,000 buy-out fee in the contract.

Lyke worked quickly to fill the void on EMU's schedule by contacting both the MAC conference's office and ESPN.

"Both organizations are aware of teams looking for games," Lyke said. "Football is a colleague to colleague business, so they helped us find schools that had gaps in their schedule."

She finalized an agreement with Missouri for the Eagles to visit the SEC school on Sept. 10, 2016 and in 2020, and both matchups include game guarantee fees while Michigan State announced a home-and-home series against BYU to replace its games against EMU.

"I think this sets us up for success," Lyke said. "We are playing a strong opponent, and we are taking care of our institution financially."

Lyke is hoping to make more scheduling announcements for the football team in the spring.

"We are 90 percent done with the schedule for the next four to five years," Lyke said. "We are hoping to make some of those announcements by the time the football team plays it spring game. Our goal is to make sure we have six home games every year for both our fans and players."

Michael Niziolek covers local sports for MLive Ann Arbor News. Email him at mniziole@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+