Missouri Valley Conference deal with ESPN means more sports on ESPN3

In 2011, the Missouri Valley Conference first showed basketball games on ESPN3, then an obscure, Internet-only part of the ESPN family.

Putting a game on ESPN3 frustrated fans, who couldn’t find that channel on their TV and didn’t want to hear about watching on their computer. Schools, including Wichita State, fought the idea because they feared hurting local TV packages.

Four years later, those concerns seem antiquated and the MVC’s foresight in jumping aboard looks wise. People watch sports on their phones and tablets and use devices that stream high-definition Internet feeds on their TV. On Thursday in Chicago, the MVC continued to ride the front of this trend when it announced a 10-year agreement with ESPN that increases ESPN3 exposure for all sports.

“It's a great step for us from an exposure standpoint, especially now that ESPN3 is a lot more understood and many people watch it with ease,” said Darron Boatright, deputy athletic director at Wichita State. “We want to provide free access for as many of our sports fans as possible to watch as much Shocker programming as is possible.”

In 2015-16, all men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball home non-conference games and all MVC games will be available on ESPN3, if not available on another network. For WSU fans, the new deal means the occasional men’s basketball home non-conference game that slipped through the TV cracks will now go to ESPN3. The change is more significant for women’s basketball and volleyball. Both will offer all 18 MVC games, plus home games, to fans on ESPN3 or another outlet.

“The MVC is going to be able to talk about how many times we’re on television,” Wichita State men’s basketball coach Gregg Marshall said. “Anytime you can appear on ESPN, it helps you with your regional and national exposure.”

The games will be branded as “The Valley on ESPN3.”

“The exponential increase in exposure will bring significant benefits to men’s and women’s basketball, and to every conference-sponsored sport,” commissioner Doug Elgin said in a news release.

Elgin trumpeted the deal as a way for the 10 members to keep up with higher-profile conferences through dramatic increases in exposure for all sports. He declined to disclose financial aspects of the contract. The deal reflects ESPN’s heavy investment in sports viewing on phones and tablets and the MVC’s willingness to jump in before most conferences and its attractiveness to ESPN.

“There will not be a financial windfall,” Boatright said. “This is broad-stroke exposure for all the sports that we compete in.”

For MVC men’s basketball fans, the deal means all 90 conference games will be televised, with four on ESPN2 and six on ESPNU in addition to Fox Sports Midwest and local packages such as Cox Kansas. MVC and home non-conference games not covered by those outlets will be produced by the home school with high-definition cameras and ESPN graphics for ESPN3.

The contract with ESPN3 does not affect local TV packages.

For WSU, which already featured most or all of its men’s basketball games on TV, the change is not as dramatic as it might be for other MVC schools with lesser local TV packages.

The change is greater in women’s basketball and volleyball, where fans can now count on home non-conference games and all MVC games on ESPN3, if not televised by another network.

There are no blackout restrictions for events produced exclusively for The Valley on ESPN3.

Ilan Ben-Hanan, ESPN’s vice president of college sports programming, described the agreement with the MVC as unique in college athletics for its scope of including all sports and its reliance on student talent for producing the games.

“A key aspect of this new campus-based production model will be the involvement of students in academic programs – broadcast media and journalism majors – providing hands-on experience that will translate to opportunities for our graduates to gain entry into television media,” Elgin said.

Other sports will be added as schools improve their staffing and production capability. According to the news release, ESPN and the MVC plan to show a minimum of 820 events each year in the final six years of the agreement. At WSU, sports such as baseball will continue to be available on its subscription streaming service until the school is ready to add them to the ESPN3 lineup.

This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 12:04 PM with the headline "Missouri Valley Conference deal with ESPN means more sports on ESPN3."