BYU will play Santa Clara and Pepperdine once each in 2018-19 in the West Coast Conference’s new basketball scheduling format, with the list of the upcoming season’s opponents announced Thursday.
The WCC is moving from a double round-robin format to a 16-game conference schedule as part of the “Men’s Basketball Enhancement Plan,” designed to keep the WCC’s lower-tier programs from hurting the credentials of the league’s NCAA Tournament contenders.
That intent clearly is reflected in the 2018-19 schedules. Pepperdine, which finished last in 2017-18, will meet Gonzaga and BYU once each. Portland, the ninth-place team, faces Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s once each and eighth-place Loyola Marymount draws SMC once.