PEORIA, Ill. -- Today's release of the 18-game Missouri Valley Conference double round-robin men's basketball schedule by the league office, as well as the announcement that all 10 Valley teams will participate in the 2007 ESPN BracketBusters series Feb. 16-17, has completed Bradley's 31-game slate for the 2006-07 season.

Following consecutive non-conference home games Dec. 19 versus Loyola-Chicago and Dec. 23 against Southern Miss, Bradley will open its Valley schedule Dec. 27 by visiting the University of Northern Iowa. Last season, Bradley beat the 25th-ranked Panthers, 71-49, on UNI's Senior Night and in the final Valley game scheduled for the UNI-Dome. By opening the 2006-07 MVC schedule at UNI, Bradley will become the first Valley team to play at the new McLeod Center.

Bradley's Valley home opener will be played Dec. 30, a Saturday night contest against Evansville at Carver Arena, and the Braves will continue the brief two-game home stand Jan. 2 against Missouri State. The first two Valley home games will start a flurry of action as the Braves quickly will turn around and travel to Wichita State Jan. 4 and Drake Jan. 6 to complete a rare stretch of four games in eight days. Bradley has not played four Valley games in an eight-day period since Jan. 14-21, 1995, a stretch that began with three straight wins, but ended with a 73-53 home loss to Tulsa, which remains the second most-lopsided home loss in 24 seasons at Carver Arena (Utah, 83-49, Dec. 5, 1992) and equalled the most-lopsided home loss ever against a Valley opponent.

Bradley will get a chance to catch its breath before returning to action Jan. 10 by hosting Southern Illinois, the only home game in a five-game stretch that will conclude with road games Jan. 13 at Indiana State and Jan. 18 at Creighton. Six of Bradley's final 10 Valley games, however, will be played at Carver Arena, beginning with consecutive home games Jan. 20 versus Wichita State and Jan. 24 against Interstate 74 rival Illinois State. The 10-game January schedule will conclude with a Jan. 27 visit to Missouri State and a Jan. 31 home game against Creighton.

February will start with consecutive road games Feb. 3 at Illinois State and Feb. 7 at Southern Illinois. The Braves will host Drake Feb. 10 in the middle game of a third stretch of four-out-of-five away from home. Bradley will visit Evansville Feb. 14, then will play its final non-conference game on the road in the fifth annual ESPN BracketBusters Feb. 16 or 17 against an opponent that will be announced at the end of January.

Including the 10 Missouri Valley Conference members, 102 teams will participate in the 2007 ESPN BracketBusters, which will include 11 nationally televised games on ESPN2 (six) and ESPNU (five). Two additional games will be carried by ESPN360, ESPN's customized broadband service. Bradley has participated in the last three BracketBusters events, posting a 2-1 record with home victories versus Northern Illinois in 2004 and Tennessee Tech last season. Bradley is 4-1 overall in games created by the event after winning the return games at Northern Illinois during the 2004-05 season and at home versus Western Kentucky last year. In addition to being a road team in this year's event, Bradley will visit Tennessee Tech Nov. 29 to complete the two-year series created by last year's matchups.

In addition to the six Valley teams that will serve as host schools in the 2007 ESPN BracketBusters, the BracketBusters committe will try to avoid pitting Bradley against Horizon League host teams Illinois-Chicago, Loyola-Chicago or Wright State due to previously scheduled games against those teams this season. Butler already is scheduled to host the Braves in 2007-08, so the subtraction of those 10 teams from the equation leaves Bradley with a pool of 41 possible opponents for the final non-conference tilt.

For the first time since 1993, Bradley will conclude the regular season with consecutive home games: Feb. 20 versus UNI and Feb. 24 against Indiana State. The Braves ended the 1992-93 regular season by sweeping UNI (72-56) and DePaul (59-53) at Carver Arena. Bradley has not ended the regular season with consecutive home games versus Valley rivals since the historic 1985-86 season, when the Braves completed their perfect run to the league title by sweeping three straight home games versus Drake (88-79), Wichita State (74-64) and Indiana State (71-51).

The nine Missouri Valley Conference home games complete Bradley's 16-game home schedule, a record number of regular-season home games during the 25 years the Braves have played at Carver Arena and the most since the 1975-76 Braves completed a 16-game home slate with an 11-5 record at Robertson Fieldhouse.

CHICAGO CHALLENGE INVITATIONAL: As previously released by Bradley, the fourth game of the Chicago Challenge Invitational will be played against either Miami (Ohio) or Illinois. Unlike a traditional tournament format, the final game is not necessarily set up as a championship bracket. The four evening session teams -- Bradley, Rutgers, Illinois and Miami (Ohio) -- from Nov. 24 will remain in the evening session Nov. 25 and will play each other, based on the outcome of the third-round games only.

TICKET INFORMATION: For 2006-07 Bradley men's basketball ticket information contact the Robertson Fieldhouse box office at 309-677-2625. Season tickets for the 17-game home slate, which includes the Nov. 4 exhibition game versus Northwest Missouri State, range from $100 to $340, based on location. Single-game tickets will become available in the fall and prices will range from $8 to $18 for most games.