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ST. LOUIS -- Now in its 117th season, the Missouri Valley Conference has selected a 24-game women’s basketball package for distribution on ESPN’s networks during the 2023-24 academic year, MVC Commissioner Jeff Jackson announced today.
For the third-consecutive year, the 2024 MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament title game will air on ESPNU. The first 10 tournament contests will be shown exclusively on ESPN+, the leading sports streaming service.
With its 2024 neutral site championship -- known as Hoops in the Heartland -- the Missouri Valley Conference becomes the only Division I stand-alone women’s basketball event to be held in the same city nine or more consecutive years.
The Valley -- in its final year of a 10-year agreement with ESPN -- will also clear a 13-game, regular-season slate via 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, connected streaming devices with TV Everywhere credentials.
The league-selected package has five appearances by Northern Iowa, followed by three each for Belmont, Drake, Illinois State and Missouri State.
The MVC has seen an average of four league teams participate in postseason play in the last 24 seasons. The Valley has earned multiple NCAA Tournament bids in 14 different seasons, including four out of the last six seasons.
The Conference finished the 2022-23 campaign rated 13th in the NCAA’s NET rankings -- marking the fourth-straight season the league finished in the top 13 nationally.
Last season, Belmont, Drake, Illinois State, Missouri State and Northern Iowa all reached 20 wins, with all five teams reaching the NCAA or WNIT fields. It marked the first time in league history that five teams reached 20 or more victories in the same campaign.
UNI -- which concluded the 2022-23 season with an overall record of 23-10 -- defeated Colorado State in the WNIT First Round prior to being eliminated at Nebraska in the Second Round.
Drake -- 22-10 overall and 14-6 in MVC action -- captured the 2023 MVC Tournament title and sustained a narrow loss to No. 5 Seed Louisville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
League regular-season co-champions Illinois State -- 24-9 overall and 17-3 in MVC play -- and Belmont -- 23-12 overall and 17-3 in Valley play -- sustained WNIT First-Round losses at Missouri and Ball State, respectively, while Missouri State -- 20-12 overall and 14-6 in MVC action -- fell in the WNIT First Round at Nebraska.
The league-selected schedule tips off on Saturday, Dec. 30, with UNI visiting Missouri State at Great Southern Bank Arena in Springfield, Missouri.
There are six productions each in the months of January and February, highlighted by a rematch of the 2023 MVC Tournament title between Drake and Belmont at the Curb Event Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, Feb. 17.
Each MVC member school receives at least one appearance in the league-selected, regular-season package.
Coverage of the 2024 women’s basketball tournament -- known uniquely as Hoops in the Heartland -- from Vibrant Arena at The MARK in Moline, Illinois, begins on Thursday, March 14, with four opening-round contests, four quarterfinal match-ups on Friday, March 15 and two semifinal games on Saturday, March 16.
The 2024 Hoops in the Heartland event will match the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern, Big Ten and Big 12 Conference tournaments, as the only Division I stand-alone women’s basketball championships to be held at a neutral site for 16 or more consecutive years.
The 2023-24 ESPN programming schedule for MVC men’s basketball will be announced on Wednesday, October 11.