Arch Madness Television

by **mbrett** » March 9th, 2019, 1:31 pm

Hey all-

Long time lurker, first time poster. So, I wanted to watch the other Arch games last night in Chicagoland, and NBC Sports + stopped broadcasting the tournament after the Bradley/Bears game. Since increasing the profile of the MVC is a passion for everyone on these forums, and since the prime reason for bringing in Loyola was to bring in the Chicago market, am I the only person who's stunned that they don't broadcast the entire tournament in Chicago?!

Just seems such an epic fail, I almost would think Loyola's '90s administration was behind it.

**Sponsor**

by **TheAsianSensation** » March 9th, 2019, 1:39 pm

Someone can correct me if I'm misinformed, but the channel also has a contract with the IHSA to show the state basketball championship that supercedes the contract to show the MVCT. And if Loyola was in the night session, they wouldn't even have been on TV. They were able to show the afternoon session because there were no conflicts. 2 is better than 0, I suppose.

by **MissouriValleyUnite** » March 9th, 2019, 1:51 pm

IHSA schedule
2019 Mar. 8-9
2020 Mar. 13-14
2021 Mar. 12-13
2022 Mar. 11-12
2023 Mar. 10-11

Arch Madness schedule (presumed)
2019 Mar. 7-10
2020 Mar. 5-8
2021 Mar. 4-7
2022 Mar. 3-6
2023 Mar. 2-5

So looks like a one-off year where IHSA lined up with Arch Madness. The deal CSN signed IHSA probably preceded Loyola’s Final 4 run.

by **mbrett** » March 9th, 2019, 2:33 pm

Well, if I'm running the MVC, that's an absolute, full-stop no-go. I'd look at a deal w/WCIU. They already show ESPN+ Atlantic 10 games on the weekend. They'd for sure do the MVC Tournament on a Friday. Plus, since OTA has such a broad sweep of the urban area (unlike NBC Sports +), I'd think the coaches would be jumping up and down for it.

In fact, Loyola should just jump to WCIU instead of NBC Sportsnet. DePaul & U of I used WGN-TV & WPWR to great recruiting effect in the '80s, early '90s.

My 2 cents.

by **TheAsianSensation** » March 9th, 2019, 3:22 pm

mbrett wrote:Well, if I'm running the MVC, that's an absolute, full-stop no-go. I'd look at a deal w/WCIU. They already show ESPN+ Atlantic 10 games on the weekend. They'd for sure do the MVC Tournament on a Friday. Plus, since OTA has such a broad sweep of the urban area (unlike NBC Sports +), I'd think the coaches would be jumping up and down for it.

In fact, Loyola should just jump to WCIU instead of NBC Sportsnet. DePaul & U of I used WGN-TV & WPWR to great recruiting effect in the '80s, early '90s.

My 2 cents.

CBS owns the rights to the MVC television package. CBS sells half the quarterfinals to NBC and the other half to ESPN+. ESPN+ will always be a better option than WCIU (they don't want to sell TV rights to a station that doesn't cover all of the MVC viewing area).

by **BearsCountry** » March 9th, 2019, 9:34 pm

TheAsianSensation wrote:
mbrett wrote:Well, if I'm running the MVC, that's an absolute, full-stop no-go. I'd look at a deal w/WCIU. They already show ESPN+ Atlantic 10 games on the weekend. They'd for sure do the MVC Tournament on a Friday. Plus, since OTA has such a broad sweep of the urban area (unlike NBC Sports +), I'd think the coaches would be jumping up and down for it.

In fact, Loyola should just jump to WCIU instead of NBC Sportsnet. DePaul & U of I used WGN-TV & WPWR to great recruiting effect in the '80s, early '90s.

My 2 cents.

CBS owns the rights to the MVC television package. CBS sells half the quarterfinals to NBC and the other half to ESPN+. ESPN+ will always be a better option than WCIU (they don't want to sell TV rights to a station that doesn't cover all of the MVC viewing area).

Actually ESPN owns the entire Valley television package, the CBS and Fox Sports Midwest package is all subleased from ESPN.

by **mbrett** » March 10th, 2019, 4:09 pm

Yeah, ESPN + owns the rights. And if they sell Atlantic 10 games to WCIU regionally, they can just as easily sell them to WCIU. I'm certain WCIU would pony up as much for those games as NBC Sports, which shuttles them to NBC Sports + half of the time and barely promotes the conference in house. It's just lazy marketing to have it on the regional sports network, if you're going to be routinely broadcast on an outlet carried by half, at best, of the Chicago market.

Again, this isn't new thinking. This is exactly what DePaul and U of I did in the '80s & '90s, and, I assure you, that is why DePaul is in the Big East. I know because I was there.

BTW, congrats to Bradley. I've never seen a team miss more shots in the lane and win basketball games. Should have beat us by 20. Truly deserved to be MVC champ.