2026 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball tournament

The 2026 Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, popularly referred to as "Arch Madness", was a postseason men's basketball tournament that completed the 2025–26 season in the Missouri Valley Conference. The tournament was held at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri from March 5–8, 2026. The winner, Northern Iowa, received the conference's automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

This would be the last year that this bracket style was used.

Seeds Teams are seeded by conference record.

Two-way ties are broken by utilizing head-to-head record; should a tie still remain, the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings the day following all conference teams having completed their regular season will be used.

Three (or more) way ties are broken by first determining the cumulative record for each tied team versus the other teams with the same conference record. Should any teams still remain tied (and there are more than two), the cumulative record would again be used on those remaining teams; should any teams still remain (and there are only two), the two-way approach would be leveraged."State Farm MVC Tournament Men’s Basketball Tiebreaker" MVC-Sports.com. Retrieved 2026-03-02. SeedSchoolConferenceRecordTiebreaker 1 Belmont 16–4 2 Bradley 13–7 3 Illinois State 12–8 NET (90) 4 Murray State 12–8 NET (101) 5 UIC 12–8 NET (116) 6 Northern Iowa 11–9 NET (81) 7 Valparaiso 11–9 NET (155) 8 10–10 9 Drake 6–14 10 Indiana State 4–16 11 Evansville 3–17

Schedule SessionGameTime *MatchupScoreAttendanceTelevisionOpening Round March 5113:30 pmNo. 8 Southern Illinois vs. No. 9 Drake63–678,960MVC TV Network/ESPN+26:00 pmNo. 7 Valparaiso vs. No. 10 Indiana State63–6238:30 pmNo. 6 Northern Iowa vs. No. 11 Evansville68–59Quarterfinals March 62412:00 pmNo. 1 Belmont vs. No. 9 Drake79–1008,068MVC TV Network/ESPN+52:30 pmNo. 4 Murray State vs. No. 5 UIC79–92366:00 pmNo. 2 Bradley vs. No. 7 Valparaiso90–84 2OT8,89778:30 pmNo. 3 Illinois State vs. No. 6 Northern Iowa52–74Semifinals March 7482:30 pmNo. 5 UIC vs. No. 9 Drake72–517,444CBSSN95:00 pmNo. 2 Bradley vs. No. 6 Northern Iowa69–73Final March 851011:00 amNo. 5 UIC vs. No. 6 Northern Iowa69–846,750CBS/Paramount+* Game times in Central Time Zone; rankings denote tournament seed.

Bracket

Source:

Game summaries Opening Round

Quarterfinal Round

Semifinal Round

Final Round

Awards and honors All-Tournament Team PlayerTeamLeon Bond IIINorthern IowaTrey Campbell Northern IowaElijah CrawfordUICJalen QuinnDrakeRashund Washington Jr.UIC MOP denotes Most Outstanding Player (Doug Elgin Award)

References