BYU Athletic Director Brian Santiago announced Friday at BYU’s Fathers and Sons Basketball Camp that BYU hoops will play North Carolina this upcoming season in the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
Sources have told me this will be in late October and is the second of BYU’s two exhibition games. BYU will play at Nebraska in a home-and-home exhibition series and then come to Salt Lake City to host the Tar Heels.
The NCAA passed a new rule that allows teams to play two D1 teams in televised exhibitions fans can attend.
Previously teams had to 1) make these D1 scrimmages “secret”, i.e., no stats released or media/fan attendance, 2) play scrimmages versus non-D1 teams, or 3) make the D1 scrimmages “charity exhibitions” if fans wanted to attend. Now teams can have fans attend these exhibitions and use the revenue however they want.
These exhibition games are essentially preseason games and do not count towards the regular season record. With the new rule in place, teams have been scheduling high-profile exhibition games. For example, Purdue and Kentucky will play each other this October.
As I reported back in March, BYU and North Carolina have been in talks for months about a neutral-neutral series starting in the Delta Center. I have not confirmed, but I suspect there will be a return exhibition game next season close to UNC.
Sources have told me this will be the first of three Delta Center games for BYU. BYU has been close to locking down a SLC game with Wisconsin.
