Valley & ESPN Five-Year Extension

Continued Partnership

(St. Louis, MO) – ESPN and Missouri Valley Conference, Inc. have announced a five-year extension to their current media rights agreement that will provide enhanced coverage of Conference events across ESPN platforms through the 2028-29 academic year.

“The five-year extension of the ESPN-MVC media rights agreement emphasizes a long-term collaboration that has worked successfully for decades,” said Commissioner Jeff Jackson who is in his fourth year with the league.  “While there is an unprecedented climate of change in our industry, particularly in the linear and digital live-event production space, our relationship with ESPN continues to be one of cooperation, innovation and brand promotion.”

ESPN retains the rights to the State Farm Men’s Basketball Tournament semifinals and title game and MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament each year. The agreement will continue to feature multiple men’s basketball and Olympic sports game telecasts across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU each year.

As part of the deal – which continues a business relationship that began in 1986 – ESPN, the Missouri Valley Conference and its 12 member institutions will continue to work collaboratively to develop and improve the league’s co-branded digital platform – The Valley on ESPN – which has produced and distributed more than 6,300 exclusive live events since its launch in August 2015.

The content includes national coverage for multiple sports on ESPN+ and provides hands-on educational opportunities for students. In the new contract, ESPN+ will showcase a minimum of 875 events per year of the agreement.

Jackson added:  “ESPN continues to embrace our vision to tell our story in the best way possible with nuances like the use of the Wildcard Selection process for our ESPN2 and ESPNU men’s basketball games, programming choices like MVC regular-season baseball on ESPNU involving NCAA Tournament participants like Indiana State and Evansville, and placement of the MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament title game on either ESPNU or ESPN2 for the past three seasons.”

About Missouri Valley Conference, Inc.
The Missouri Valley Conference — the nation’s second-oldest NCAA Division I conference — continues to be a leader in college athletics and is one of the nation’s most progressive conferences, celebrating its 118th season in 2024-25.

About ESPN
ESPN, the world’s leading multiplatform sports entertainment brand, features eight U.S. television networks, the leading sports app, direct-to-consumer ESPN+, leading social and digital platforms,

About ESPN+
ESPN+ is the No. 1 sports streaming platform, serving fans in the U.S. with exclusive access to more than 32,000 live sports events each year, an unmatched library of on-demand replays and acclaimed original content, and premium written articles by the top reporters and analysts from ESPN.com. Fans sign up to ESPN+ for just $10.99 a month.