Valley’s Women’s Tournament Title Game to Air on ESPNU

First Time in League History

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

(St. Louis) – Now in its 115th season, the Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament will make Conference history, as the title game on Sunday, March 13, will be aired on ESPNU for the first time.  The first eight tournament contests will be shown exclusively on ESPN+.

The 2022 tournament finale will also be shown on linear television for the first time since the 2014 event, when the title tilt between Wichita State and Drake aired on FOX Sports Midwest-Indiana-Kansas City and NBC Sports Chicago.

“Our women’s basketball continues its ascent, and we are grateful for the recognition by ESPN with its clearance of our tournament title game on ESPNU,” said Commissioner Jeff Jackson who is in his first year with The Valley.

“Our women’s programs set a new league record for the highest RPI/NET conference ranking (7th) in 2020-21 and had five teams in the NET Top 100 for a second-straight season.”

Valley teams return 74 percent of their 2020-21 starters, with seven of the 10 rosters returning four or more.

The Conference will also boast elite talent on the court, as nine of its top 10 scorers, all 10 of its top rebounders and 10 of its 11 first-team All-MVC selections return.

The Valley — in its eighth year of a 10-year agreement with ESPN — will also clear an 11-game regular-season slate via ESPN3 as well as ESPN+ — the industry-leading sports streaming service.

Additional regular-season women’s basketball games produced by MVC institutions will be delivered exclusively by The Valley on ESPN — also available via the ESPN App on smartphones, tablets, connected streaming devices or espn.com/watch.

The league-selected package has four pre-determined appearances by Missouri State — which finished 14th in the final 2021 USA Today/WBCA Coaches Poll — followed by three each for Drake — 2021 WNIT participant — and Northern Iowa — 2021 WNIT semifinalist.

The MVC has seen an average of four league teams participate in postseason play in the last 22 seasons. The Valley has earned multiple NCAA Tournament bids in 13 different seasons, including three out of the last four seasons.

Missouri State, 23-3 overall and 16-0 in league play, tied a school record for fewest losses in a season and matched the program’s best-ever NCAA Tournament seed (No. 5), defeating UC Davis and Wright State in the first two rounds before falling to eventual national champion Stanford in the Sweet Sixteen.

UNI, defeated Dayton, Creighton and Saint Louis before falling to Ole Miss in the WNIT.  It was the Panthers’ first-ever appearance in the WNIT semis.

The league-selected schedule tips off Friday, Dec. 31, when Missouri State plays host to Loyola — which competed in the 2021 WBI for the program’s first- ever postseason appearance.

On Saturday, Jan. 1, Bradley — 2021 MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament champion and NCAA Tournament participant — visits Illinois State, which played in the WNIT.

Coverage of the women’s basketball tournament — known as Hoops in the Heartland — from the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Illinois, begins on Thursday, March 10, with two opening-round contests, four quarterfinal telecasts on Friday, March 11 and two semifinal games on Saturday, March 12.

The 2021-22 ESPN programming schedule for MVC men’s basketball will be announced on Tuesday, October 5.