BYU Basketball: Conference matchups announced for 2018-19 season

The WCC released the men’s basketball matchups for 2018-19 league play, and BYU’s strength of schedule will benefit from their draw.

The scheduling format for West Coast Conference games is changing, and BYU Men’s Basketball now knows the two teams they’ll only face once in conference play next season.

Last month, the WCC announced that league play in men’s basketball would be reduced from 18 games to 16. As a result, each team will only play seven out of nine conference foes twice. They’ll play the other two teams once, one on the road and one at home.

On Thursday, the league announced the matchups for the 2018-19 season. Here’s how it breaks down for the Cougars:

• BYU will play Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount, Pacific, Portland, St. Mary’s, San Diego, and San Francisco twice, once on the road and once at home.
• They’ll only play Santa Clara once, and it will be at home.
• They’ll only play Pepperdine once, and it will be on the road.

The dates and times of the games will be announced later this summer.

The whole purpose of the new scheduling system is to boost the strength of schedule for the top teams. By eliminating two conference games, most likely ones against low-RPI teams, it allows the top schools to schedule two more non-conference games against competition that will boost their tournament resume.

Based off of last years finish, BYU’s strength of schedule will benefit from their draw in 2018-19. Santa Clara finished 7th in the WCC and had an RPI of 264. Pepperdine finished last in the league with an RPI of 317.

That means the Cougars avoid playing two sub-200 RPI opponents. Those games are no-win games for BYU. A win doesn’t boost their resume, and a loss can damage their tournament resume beyond repair.

Just look at last season. BYU was still in discussion as a bubble team until a devastating loss at Loyola Marymount.

Now the Cougars have two less of those types of games to worry about.

BYU will almost certainly have a drastically better strength of schedule in 2018-19. Last year’s schedule strength ranked No. 118, which was too low to give the Cougars any margin of error throughout the season.

This year, BYU will play at least four games against teams that will likely begin the season in the Top 25. Three of those (Gonzaga twice and Nevada) will likely be against Top 10 teams.

The Cougars should play at least 12 games against Tier 1 or Tier 2 opponents, and they’ve still got five games left to schedule. Last season, they only played eight during the regular season.

Between the stronger non-conference schedule and the improved conference format, the Cougars are putting together a tournament-worthy schedule.

Now they’ll have to win enough games for it to matter.

More from BYU Basketball

• BYU Sports: Is a Big 12 announcement finally coming?
• Thank you Bob Bowlsby for what you did for BYU Sports
• BYU Sports: Only one more year before the Big 12
• BYU Basketball: How will scheduling change in the Big 12?
• Which BYU Sports are ready to compete in the Big 12?

Confirmed 2018-19 Games:

• at Nevada
• Houston
• at San Diego State
• vs. UNLV (T-Mobile Arena is Las Vegas)
• at Mississippi State
• at Weber State
• Utah State
• vs. Utah (Vivint Smarthome Arena in Salt Lake City)
• at Illinois State
• Utah Valley
• Gonzaga (2x)
• Loyola Marymount (2x)
• Pacific (2x)
• Portland (2x)
• St. Mary’s (2x)
• San Diego (2x)
• San Francisco (2x)
• Santa Clara
• at Pepperdine