Valley Games Back on ESPN Networks

Editor: The following is part of a press release from mvc-sports.com.

(St. Louis, MO) – The Missouri Valley Conference will have an exclusive 41-live event men’s basketball package on ESPN networks during the 2021-22 academic year, Commissioner Jeff Jackson announced today.

Additional regular-season men’s basketball games produced by MVC institutions will be delivered exclusively through The Valley on ESPN — the league’s co-branded digital network with ESPN available through the ESPN App.

Coverage of men’s basketball begins in November, as five MVC schools will compete in ESPN-controlled, neutral site events.

Indiana State will play in the Myrtle Beach Invitational, while both Bradley and Southern Illinois will participate in the Paradise Jam (Nov. 19-22) in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Loyola — 2021 MVC regular-season champion and a Sweet 16 participant in the NCAA Tournament — will play in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis at Paradise Island, Bahamas.

The Ramblers — who posted NCAA Tournament wins over Georgia Tech and regional top seed Illinois — will play Michigan State in their opening game.  Loyola faces a field that includes defending national champion Baylor as well as Connecticut, Auburn, Syracuse and Arizona State.

Drake — an at-large 2021 NCAA Tourney selection — will compete in the ESPN Events Invitational in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

The Bulldogs, who beat Wichita State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, open the event against Belmont University, which announced on September 28 that it would be joining The Valley on July 1, 2022.

In terms of regular-season MVC tilts, the league will have four games on ESPN2 and a total of six contests on ESPNU with final network determinations being made in some cases one week prior to competition.

That package begins on Thursday, Dec. 2, when Drake plays host to Valparaiso on ESPNU at the Knapp Center in Des Moines, Iowa.

After a break during the holiday season, the schedule resumes on Sunday, Jan. 2, when Loyola travels to Southern Illinois for an ESPNU tilt at SIU Arena in Carbondale, Illinois.

The league has also selected a 16-game digital exclusive men’s basketball package for distribution on ESPN3 and/or ESPN+ — via computers, smartphones, tablets and TV-connected devices to fans who receive their high-speed internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider.

The slate, which includes 16 league productions, starts on Wednesday, Dec. 1, with 2020 MVC regular-season champion Northern Iowa visiting Bradley, which earned back-to-back State Farm MVC Men’s Basketball Tournament titles in 2019 and 2020.

In 2020, the Missouri Valley joined the Big East (New York City) as the only Division I athletics conferences to conduct their men’s basketball tournaments in the same city for 30 or more consecutive years.