Lost somewhat in Friday's news that the NCAA decided to delay the vote on a one-time transfer exception was an important scheduling move that gives high-major schools more control of their nonconference scheduling.
You have to dig into the weeds a little bit on this one, but bear with us. Basically, the NCAA Division I council voted to eliminate "add-on" games that come with many multi-team events, keeping high-major schools from being forced to play weak opponents. The rule is scheduled to be formally reviewed Wednesday by the NCAA's Board of Directors.
Under the old rules, teams were allowed to play four games in multi-team events for the price of only three against the scheduling maximum. Naturally, this is a deal everybody wants but most multi-team events only offer two games at a neutral site (like the NIT Season Tip-Off) or three (Maui Invitational, Battle 4 Atlantis, etc). Therefore, the event operators will add on other games at home sites to give everyone a total of four games.
That caused Arizona's strength of schedule to take a particular hit in 2016-17, when the Wildcats agreed to play two games in the Las Vegas Invitational over Thanksgiving -- but later learned they would also have to host two games against 300-plus RPI teams, Sacred Heart and Northern Colorado.
This season, the Wildcats agreed to play in the NIT Season Tip-Off at Brooklyn and have been holding up two spots for the extra games. Now instead of having ESPN Events assign them two games for those spots, they can schedule anybody they want.
The rules change essentially lets anyone who plays in an "MTE" (and almost everyone does now) play 31 games while those who do not will only play 29. Officially, that's known as 29 plus two (MTE games) or 28 plus three.
The distinction to also allow 31 games via a 28-plus-three schedule is particularly important to mid-major teams, which aren't as likely to gain spots in the prestigious two-game MTEs that need only four teams.
UA will be playing a 29-plus-two schedule next season, with 20 Pac-12 games, nine single nonconference games and the two NIT Season Tip-Off games.
Only the two formerly added-on games are left for UA to schedule. Here's how Arizona's pre-Christmas schedule looks now:
Nov. 10 NAU
Nov. 12 Northern Colorado
Nov. 16 TBA home game
Nov. 20 TBA home game
Nov. 25 at NIT Season Tip-Off, Brooklyn, N.Y.*
Nov. 27 at NIT Season Tip-Off, Brooklyn, N.Y.*
Dec. 2 Colorado**
Dec. 5 at Gonzaga
Dec 9. Bakersfield
Dec. 12 at Illinois
Dec. 16 Cal Baptist
Dec. 19 at Stanford**
Dec. 22 Montana
* Bracket TBA. Participating teams include Cincinnati, Texas Tech and St. John's.
** Pac-12 games added on to the 18-game rotation. Arizona will only miss a road game at Cal and a home game with Utah in 2020-21.
