ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Missouri Valley Conference announced its updated men's basketball schedule for the 2020-21 season Friday, Dec. 4.
The new format significantly reduces travel and places an emphasis on the health and safety of student-athletes, coaches and staff. The MVC will continue to play an 18-game format in which MVC teams will face one another in a two-game series on back-to-back days at the same site. Each institution will play four road series and four home series and will also face their designated 'travel partner' in a single-game, home-and-home series. All Conference play begins after the Christmas break.
SIU, Loyola, Illinois State, Evansville will visit the Knapp Center for two-game series while the Bulldogs will travel to Indiana State, Missouri State, Valparaiso and Bradley. Drake and its travel partner, UNI, face each other in a home-and-home.
The Bulldogs' league schedule begins Dec. 27-28 with a pair of games at Indiana State. The team's home league slate starts Jan. 3-4 against SIU.
Click here for 2020-21 schedule
On Nov. 20, the MVC Presidents Council reaffirmed its priorities for decision-making regarding COVID-19 matters, which include: health and safety, ethical responsibility in decision-making, student-athlete experience, quality of competition and opportunities for national competitiveness.
The Presidents Council also acknowledged that athletically-related activities will take place only to the extent permitted by local environments and applicable national, state, local and institutional guidelines in order to safeguard the health and safety of participants, staff and fans.
Consistent with those principles, the Conference has adopted a new scheduling format for men's and women's basketball Conference games.
Results of Conference play will determine seeding for the State Farm MVC Men's Basketball Championship (March 4-7, 2021) at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. All 10 teams qualify for the tournament.
Check www.GoDrakeBulldogs.com for additional details regarding the conference slate, including game times and broadcast information as they become available.
