WCC changes schedules, tournaments

Acknowledging the vast disparity between the top teams and the bottom teams in the conference, the WCC on Monday announced changes to its men’s basketball schedule and to the format of the men’s and women’s conference tournaments.

Beginning next season, men’s teams will play 16 WCC games instead of 18. Each team will miss one conference foe at home and one on the road.

The conference tournament will revert to a staggered format: The bottom four teams will meet in the opening round, advancing to play Nos. 5 and 6, with Nos. 3 and 4 awaiting those winners. The top two teams will debut in the semifinals.

With many conferences adding to their league schedules, the WCC is bucking the trend. The impetus is to improve the RPIs of the top teams (read: Gonzaga, St. Mary’s and BYU) by giving them the opportunity to schedule two nonconference games against teams that most likely will own better RPIs than second-division WCC teams.

Also, those second-division teams might improve their RPIs by beating two nonconference teams instead of absorbing lopsided losses against the Zags, Gaels or Cougars.

By staggering the conference tournament, the WCC intends to make it harder for its top teams to lose in Las Vegas and thus prevent a scenario such as the one that happened this month: After squeaking out a win in the quarterfinals, St. Mary’s lost to BYU in the semis. That loss very well might have cost the Gaels an NCAA at-large bid.

The conference said discussions on the changes began in June, when ESPN bracket guru Joe Lunardi met with the WCC head coaches and athletic directors.

Starting with the 2019-20 season, WCC men’s teams will be required to play in a multi-team event, play more home games than road games and schedule no more than two non-Division I opponents.