The days of loading up on creampuff opponents early in the season are numbered for some teams in the Pac-12, thanks to a mandate by the league’s top decision makers.
Beginning in the 2020-21 season, Pac-12 men’s basketball teams will have restrictions put on their nonconference schedules in the form of four new ‘standards’ meant to improve the league’s ability to get teams into the NCAA Tournament. The Pac-12 has sent just three teams to March Madness each of the past two seasons, by far the lowest of the power conferences.
The four standards are:
- no regular-season games against non-Division I opponents
- no road games against opponents with five-year NET ranking average worse than 200
- no road games where the Pac-12 team is the ‘buy’ opponent, i.