The Missouri Valley Conference has announced its women’s basketball tournament will move to St. Louis, where the men’s tournament has been held for over three decades.
The tournament for both the men and women will be held on the same weekend, and the format also will change. The top 10 teams in the 11-team league will qualify for the postseason tournament and the top two seeds in each field will get automatic bids to the semifinals.
The tournament champion earns an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
League officials said that provides a “meaningful reward” for regular-season success “while preserving the excitement and intensity that have long defined MVC championship basketball.”
Last March, Belmont became the league’s first top-seeded men’s program to lose in the quarterfinal round. Six-seeded Northern Iowa won the four-day tournament which was filled with upsets.
The 2027 tournaments, scheduled for next March 3-7, has four first round games for the women on Wednesday, four first-round games on Thursday, second-round games for both tournaments on Friday, semifinals on Saturday and both championship games on Sunday.
“This is about more than a tournament format. It is about creating a larger stage for our student-athletes, delivering greater value for our fans and partners, and continuing to invest in the future of Missouri Valley Conference basketball,” MVC commissioner Jeff Jackson said in a statement. “We believe this decision creates a unique opportunity to celebrate both championships together while preserving everything that has made Arch Madness special for more than 35 years.”
The MVC men’s tournament has been held at Enterprise Center in St. Louis since 1991. The women’s tournament has rotated among several venues in recent years. The games were played last season Coralville, Iowa. The 2025 tournament was played in Evansville, Indiana, after a nine-year run in the Quad Cities.
