ESPN and the Missouri Valley Conference have agreed to a multi-year deal to broadcast additional coverage of MVfC football through 2023. 

Per the agreement, all conference and most home non-conference games will be broadcast on ESPN3, a streaming service of ESPN that is free with a cable subscription. 

“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 in a release Monday. “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.”

Last season, 49 MVC regular season football games were available on ESPN3, which is available in almost 99 million homes.

Shane Gibbons, director of video services, is in charge of Saluki video content and live events. Gibbons said between 20 and 30 students work behind the scenes of athletic events, divided between the broadcast and the video board.

Gibbons said the new deal increases the opportunities for students to learn the craft.

“This will give them another dimension to their skill set because producing football is a completely different animal from producing basketball or volleyball,” he said.  

The Salukis begin their season Sept. 3 at Florida Atlantic then return home to play Southeast Missouri State the following week.

Ted Ward contributed to this story. 

Austin Miller can be reached at [email protected] or at 618-536-3333