Feb. 5, 2009
ST. LOUIS -
The Illinois State-Northern Iowa women's basketball game Sunday, March 1, at 2:05 p.m. has been selected for a television broadcast by the Missouri Valley Conference as part of the annual Wildcard Weekend. The game will be shown live on Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports Indiana, Fox Sports Kansas City, Fox College Sports and Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
"The Wildcard Weekend format will enable us to televise what promises to be an exciting close to our women's basketball regular-season race," said MVC Commissioner Elgin. "This is the fourth-consecutive year that we have utilized the Wildcard format to select our final regular-season women's basketball games for television on Fox Sports and Comcast, and we have a great line-up of telecasts."
Using the Wildcard Weekend model, the league -- through its television partners Fox Sports Midwest, Fox College Sports, Comcast SportsNet Chicago and ESPN2 -- reserves clearance windows on February and March dates in the fall of each academic year and waits until the midpoint of both the men's and women's basketball seasons to determine its final regular-season telecasts for both genders.
The Redbirds beat Northern Iowa this past weekend, 67-55, to close out the first half of the Valley schedule in sole possession of first place with an 8-1 mark. The game will be the final regular-season home game for Redbird seniors Brea Banks, Kristi Cirone and Ashley Sandstead.
