Championship Subdivision of Division I.
== History ==
Southeast Missouri State University was founded in 1873 when a group of businessmen and politicians successfully lobbied the State of Missouri to designate Cape Girardeau as the home of the Third District Normal School. Originally known as Southeast Missouri State Normal School, the first classes were taught at the nearby Lorimier School until April 1875, when the first university building was completed.
The university has had five names in its history:
Southeast Missouri State Normal School, 1873–1881
Missouri State Normal School—Third District, 1881–1919
Southeast Missouri State Teachers College, 1919–1946
Southeast Missouri State College, 1946–1973
Southeast Missouri State University, 1973–present
The Normal building was described in 1883 by Mark Twain in Life on the Mississippi as "a bright new edifice, picturesquely and peculiarly towered and pinnacled—a sort of gigantic casters, with the cruets all complete." It burned down on April 8, 1902, and was …
