ST. LOUIS -- Now in its 118th season, the Missouri Valley Conference has selected a 24-game women’s basketball package for distribution on ESPN’s platforms during the 2024-25 academic year, MVC Commissioner Jeff Jackson announced Tuesday.
For the fourth-consecutive year, the 2025 MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament title game will be presented on ESPN2 or ESPNU on Sunday, March 16. The championship contest has been distributed either on ESPNU (2022-2023) and ESPN2 (2024) for the past three years.
The first 10 tournament contests will be shown exclusively on ESPN+, the leading sports streaming service.
With its 2025 neutral site tournament in Evansville, Indiana, The Valley will match the ACC, SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 Conference Tournaments, as the only current Division I stand-alone women’s basketball championships to be held at a neutral site for more than 17 consecutive years.
The Valley -- in its first year of a five-year agreement with ESPN -- will also stream a 13-game, regular-season slate on ESPN+.
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 and connected streaming devices with TV Everywhere credentials.
The league-selected package has five appearances by two-time defending MVC Tournament champion Drake, followed by UNI with four and Belmont, Missouri State and Murray State with three each.
The MVC has seen an average of five league teams participate in postseason play in the last 25 seasons. The Valley has earned multiple NCAA Tournament bids in 14 different seasons, including four of the last seven years.
The Conference finished the 2023-24 campaign rated 13th in the NCAA’s NET rankings -- the fourth-straight season the league finished in the top 13 nationally.
The Valley sent a record-tying total of seven teams to the postseason in 2024. Drake made the NCAA Tournament field, and Belmont and Missouri State competed in the inaugural WBIT. UIC, Illinois State, Murray State and UNI participated in the WNIT.
Drake, Belmont, Missouri State, Illinois State and Murray State all reached 20 wins, marking the second-straight year and the second time in league history that five teams reached 20 or more victories in the same campaign.
Drake -- 29-6 overall and 19-1 in MVC action -- captured the 2024 MVC Tournament title and sustained a loss to No. 5 Seed Colorado in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Belmont -- 26-9 overall and 17-3 in league play -- won at Ball State in the WBIT First Round before being defeated at Penn State in the Second Round.
Missouri State -- 23-10 overall and 15-5 in MVC play -- fell in the First Round of the WBIT at Illinois.
Illinois State -- 22-12 and 13-7 in MVC play -- defeated College of Charleston in the First Round of WNIT before being eliminated at Wisconsin. UIC, Murray State and UNI all sustained WNIT First-Round losses.
The league-selected schedule tips off on Saturday, Jan. 4, with UIC visiting UNI at McLeod Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
There are six productions in the month of January, five in February and two in March, with both games of the Drake-Missouri State series being selected. The Jan. 24 contest at Great Southern Bank Arena in Springfield, Missouri, will mark the schools’ first meeting since their epic MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament title game clash on ESPN2, with Drake winning 76-75.
Each MVC member school receives at least one appearance in the league-selected, regular-season package.
Coverage of the 2025 MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament from Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, begins on Thursday, March 13, with four opening-round contests, four quarterfinal match-ups on Friday, March 14 and two semifinal games on Saturday, March 15.
The championship contest is one of the numerous Division I women’s basketball conference title games to be televised live on ESPN linear platforms (ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU).
The 2024-25 ESPN programming schedule for MVC men’s basketball will be announced on Tuesday afternoon, October 8.
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