ST. LOUIS (December 9, 2020) - For the sixth-straight year, CBS Sports Network will distribute a package of Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball games, including the State Farm MVC Tournament semifinals and eight regular-season contests, MVC Commissioner Doug Elgin announced today.
 
CBS, which has shown every title game of Arch Madness since 2006, will televise the 2021 championship tilt on March 7. 
 
In 2018, CBS Sports and the MVC agreed to a multi-year extension to televise MVC men's basketball games on CBS and CBS Sports Network.  The deal, which continues through 2023-24, is through a sublicense agreement with ESPN. 
 
"Since its first telecast of an Arch Madness final in 2006 through this year's unique scheduling and selection process due to COVID-19, CBS Sports continues its unyielding commitment to our 10 institutions," said Elgin, who is in his 33rd and final year with the Conference.
 
"Last season, CBS Sports captured the drama of our upset-filled 30th men's basketball tournament in St. Louis, and fittingly, CBS Sports will be on site to feature the excitement from our 45th overall postseason men's basketball championship," added Elgin, who is the longest-tenured commissioner in the league's 114-year history.
 
The 2020-21 regular-season package of games on CBS Sports Network highlights 2018 NCAA Final Four participant and 2018 and 2019 MVC regular-season champion Loyola.
 
Loyola will appear in six games, while 2020 MVC regular-season champion Northern Iowa along with 2019 MVC regular-season co-champion Drake, Illinois State and Missouri State will receive two appearances each.  
  
The CBSSN package begins on Monday, December 28, as Loyola entertains Illinois State at Gentile Arena on the north side of Chicago, Illinois.
 
That December match-up begins the first of three consecutive Monday telecasts, as two-time Arch Madness defending champion Bradley meetsLoyola on January 4 in Peoria, Illinois, and Drake takes on Loyola on January 11 in Des Moines, Iowa.
 
Northern Iowa, the league's preseason favorite and a four-time NCAA Tournament participant under 2020 MVC Coach of the Year Ben Jacobson, will face intra-state rival Drake on Thursday, January 21, at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
 
As a result of the league's move to a two-game, same-site scheduling model for Conference play in 2020-21, CBS Sports Network has selected both games of the Loyola at Missouri State series on January 30-31 from JQH Arena in Springfield, Missouri.
 
The remaining two CBSSN productions will occur on the final regular-season weekend on Friday-Saturday, February 26-27. 
 
Loyola entertains Southern Illinois on February 26, while Illinois State meets Northern Iowa on February 27, at Redbird Arena in Normal, Illinois.
 
CBS Sports' coverage of the 2021 State Farm MVC Men's Basketball Championship will include the semifinals on March 6 on CBS Sports Network.  The title contest on March 7 will air at 1 p.m. Central on CBS Sports.
 
In 2020, the Missouri Valley joined the Big East (New York City) as the only Division I athletics conferences to conduct their men's basketball tournaments in the same city for 30 or more consecutive years.