BYU Basketball: Cougars need to find a Multi-Team Event for 2018-19

Since the NCAA changed their scheduling rules for college basketball more than a decade ago, Multi-Team Events have become a necessity. BYU needs to find one for 2018-19, and they’re running out of options.

Multi-Team Events have become a staple of college basketball.

Some of them have been around for years and become iconic, like the Maui Invitational, the Paradise Jam, and the NIT Season Tip-Off. Others come and go, with new events popping up every year. Last season, 44 events were held with exempt status (more on that later).

BYU Basketball played in one of them, the now-defunct Barclay’s Classic. They took on UT Arlington and Niagara at the Marriott Center as part of the classic, then faced off against Alabama and UMass in Brooklyn to cap it off.

This year, there are 31 exempt events known so far according to Blogging the Bracket, and there will probably be more announced. 29 of them are full.

BYU isn’t in any of them, and they won’t play in the two that still have openings.

One of them, the Islands of the Bahamas Showcase, would require one game on a Sunday. Plus, conference foe Pepperdine is already in that one.

The other is an MTE that’s being hosted by Houston. But BYU is already playing Houston this year, so that one’s out of the question.

So what’s the big deal? Why do the Cougars need to play in one of these tournament?

If they don’t, they’ll play fewer games than everyone else. And with the way the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee has been interpreting resumes, every game counts.

The Cougars need to play as many games as they can, and get as many high-quality matchups as possible. Without an MTE, that won’t happen.

To understand why, let’s look at what an MTE is and how it works.