ST. LOUIS – ESPN and the Missouri Valley Football Conference have announced a multi-year agreement that will provide increased coverage of conference games on ESPN3 through the 2023 season.
“The most far reaching way to showcase the Missouri Valley Football Conference is by distributing our games and our goal is to make all of our games – conference and non-conference – available to our fans,” said Commissioner Patty Viverito. “We are elated with this agreement with ESPN and, this fall and in every year of the contract, we will have more than 50 Valley football games available on ESPN3 nationwide.”
As part of the deal, ESPN, the Missouri Valley Football Conference and its 10 member institutions will work jointly to air all conference games and most non-conference home games on ESPN3 throughout the length of the agreement. During each year of the term, the MVFC will produce an eight-game exclusive package -- available only on the league's conference channel on WatchESPN (Valley Football on ESPN3). MVFC institutions will continue to broadcast other games as part of their regional sports package or institutionally produced content, but any game that is televised will also be available on ESPN3.
Last year, a total of 49 Missouri Valley Football games during the regular season were available on ESPN3. Additional road non-conference games and playoff contests involving MVFC teams were also aired on ESPN networks.
Sycamore Football was featured on the ESPN family of networks for nine of its 11-game schedule in 2015 – which included one game on ESPNews at Purdue on Sept. 12. Indiana State's Nov. 14 home game vs. Western Illinois at Memorial Stadium was ISU's first football game produced solely by its student ESPN production crew.
“We are excited that our fans and alumni across the nation will be able to follow the Sycamores and the MVFC,” said Indiana State interim director of athletics Angie Lansing. “Our conference is the strongest in the FCS, and it will be great for everyone to have access to a high-quality brand of football. This deal also gives our student production crew yet another opportunity for experiential learning under the direction of Chris Jones and the entire student media department.”
ESPN3 is currently available to more than 99 million homes at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider. The network is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers, smartphones and tablets connected to on-campus educational and on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Football team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.
