ST. LOUIS -- The Missouri Valley Conference will distribute a men’s and women’s basketball telecast package on Gray Media-owned and non-Gray syndicated over-the-air stations in 2024-25, Commissioner Jeff Jackson announced today.
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The Missouri Valley Conference, with Indianapolis-based Tupelo Honey serving as its production company, has worked in conjunction with Gray Media to clear the package.
Gray Media and the Conference signed a multi-year clearance agreement in September 2024, with 22 Gray Media affiliate stationslocated within the Conference’s six-state footprint of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee.
The Valley on ESPN -- the league’s co-branded digital platform via the ESPN app -- will also distribute the productions nationally on ESPN+.
The league telecast schedule tips off with three pre-Christmas men’s basketball productions, as Murray State plays host to Evansville (Dec. 3), Illinois State travels to Belmont (Dec. 4) and Indiana State entertains Murray State (Dec. 18).
The 18-game regular-season men’s basketball package includes six Wednesday night double-headers with the first occurring on New Year’s Night (Jan. 1) with 2024-25 MVC men’s basketball preseason favorite Bradley traveling to Indiana State and Belmont visiting Northern Iowa.
Some markets will air a Game-of-the-Week format, which may not include both games of a twinbill.
The January double-headers also include Southern Illinois at Missouri State and Illinois State at two-time defending MVC men’s basketball tournament champion and NCAA Tournament participant Drake on Jan. 15 and UNI at Drake and Belmont at Illinois State on Jan. 29.
Three are also three double-headers in February with UNI at Missouri State and Belmont at Bradley on Feb. 5, SIU at Bradley and Drake at Illinois State on Feb. 12, and UIC at UNI and Bradley at Valparaiso on Feb. 26.
Stand-alone productions feature Murray State at UNI (Jan. 8), Murray State at SIU (Jan. 22) and SIU at Murray State (Feb. 19).
The league will also produce and distribute three regular-season women’s basketball games -- UIC at Drake (Jan. 2), UNI at Belmont (Feb. 13) and Missouri State at Murray State (Feb. 27).
The linear three women’s basketball productions mark the second-straight year the Conference has produced and distributed multiple league contests on either regional cable or over-the-air television platforms.
The 2025 State Farm MVC Men’s Basketball Championship -- the league’s 35th-consecutive event in St. Louis -- on March 6-9 will feature 11 games with the first eight contests being shown on Gray Media-owned and non-Gray syndicated over-the-air stations.
All four opening-round games on March 6 and the four quarterfinal tilts on March 7 will air on these stations and ESPN+ nationally and throughout the league’s six-state footprint of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee.
The semifinals on March 8 will be on CBS Sports Network, and the title contest on March 9 will air at 1:15 p.m. Central on CBS Sports for a 20th-straight season.
In January 2024, the Conference announced a contract extension with Enterprise Center -- site of the event since 1995 -- that could keep the tournament in St. Louis through 2030.
In 2020, The Valley joined the Big East (New York City) as the only Division I athletics leagues to conduct their men’s basketball tournaments in the same city for 30 or more consecutive years.
GRAY MEDIA
Gray Media, or Gray, is a multimedia company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, formally known as Gray Television, Inc. The company is the nation’s largest owner of top-rated local television stations and digital assets serving 113 television markets that collectively reach approximately 36 percent of U.S. television households.
The portfolio includes 77 markets with the top-rated television station and 100 markets with the first and/or second highest ratedtelevision station, as well as the largest Telemundo Affiliate group with 43 markets totaling nearly 1.5 million Hispanic TV Households.
The company also owns Gray Digital Media, a full-service digital agency offering national and local clients digital marketing strategies with the most advanced digital products and services. Gray’s additional media properties include video production companies Raycom Sports, Tupelo Media Group, and PowerNation Studios, and studio production facilities Assembly Atlanta and Third Rail Studios. Gray owns a majority interest in Swirl Films.
ESPN+
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