ST. LOUIS, Mo. ? The Missouri Valley Conference, in its 102nd year of competition, announced its 2008-09 league television package on Tuesday and the Indiana State men's team will be guaranteed five telecasts, while the ISU women's team will have two games broadcast around the country.
The Valley, with Metro Sports of Kansas City serving as its production company, has worked in conjunction with Fox Sports Midwest - along with its sister regional cable outlets Fox Sports Indiana and Fox Sports Kansas City - and Comcast SportsNet Chicago to clear telecasts. Additional telecasts will also be shown on the ESPN family of networks ? ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU ? and CBS Sports.
The Sycamore men's team will be featured as part of the Fox Sports Midwest package three times in January, with the first contest coming on Jan. 4 against in-state rival Evansville at the Hulman Center. ISU's game on Jan. 24 at Bradley will be part of a doubleheader that day, with Southern Illinois and Illinois State playing in the first televised game of the day. The team's last televised game of the month will take place on Jan. 31 against Northern Iowa at the Hulman Center.
In addition to the games in the January, the team's Valentine's Day match-up at Missouri State on Feb. 14 will also be telecast on Fox Sports Midwest. Indiana State will also make an appearance on ESPNU for the first time, when the team travels to Illinois State to face off against the Redbirds on Feb. 8 at Redbird Arena.
The ISU women's team will be featured twice as part of the package, once on Fox Sports Midwest and once on ESPNU. The first of the two telecasts will take place on Jan. 30, when the Sycamores take on Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa, on Fox Sports Midwest. The second televised game will be on Feb. 7 at Illinois State, meaning that the Sycamores will be featured against the Redbirds on consecutive days on ESPNU.
Both the Sycamores men's and women's teams may also be selected for the Valley's Wildcard Weekend, which takes place the last weekend of the regular season for both squads. In addition, the men's team will be participating in the seventh annual ESPNU BracketBusters series Feb. 20-21, 2009, and six of the games will be aired on ESPN2, while five contests will be televised on ESPNU.
The Sycamores should also be featured heavily during the postseason, as all four quarterfinal games March 6 and both semifinal contests on March 7 from the 2009 State Farm MVC Men's Basketball Tournament in St. Louis will air live on Fox Sports Midwest and Comcast SportsNet Chicago. In addition, CBS Sports will air the title game of the State Farm MVC Men's Basketball Tournament. The league will also be televising the women's 2009 State Farm MVC Tournament semifinals on March 14 and title game on March 15 at The Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo.
