u200bu200b
It's a new era of sorts in examining the nonconference portion of the men's college basketball season. A diminished slate of traditional MTEs -- exempt multiteam events -- along with ever-expanding league schedules have combined to change the cadence of marquee matchups, with games between high-majors and the top of the mid-major ranks becoming especially rare.
Power conference challenges, outside the ACC/SEC event in December, have also faded away. The Players Era Festival and other one-off neutral court pairings have picked up some of the slack, but the Big East in recent years has done away with both the Gavitt Games (vs.