The
NCAA’s ongoing effort to streamline and deregulate its extensive bylaws is creating controversy in one specific corner of the college sports world. A new legislative proposal—already approved by the men’s and women’s basketball oversight committees, and currently under review by the Division I council—would dramatically harm the business of basketball multiple-team events (MTEs) and may effectively eliminate most neutral-site games. At least, that’s the warning from a long-time MTE organizer
.
That system is now on the brink of transformation thanks to NCAA Proposal No. 2025-2, which would establish an across-the-board maximum of 32 regular-season contests for men’s and women’s basketball programs, regardless of whether they participate in MTEs. Currently, schools can play up to 31 regular-season games if they participate in a two- or three-game MTE, and up to 28 games for those that do not.
Under the NCAA’s current governance structure, the new plan will take effect in time for the 2026-27 academic year, unless the D-I council overturns the oversight committees’ recommendations. The council is slated to decide on its latest agenda items this week.
By doing away with the legislated incentive, the NCAA “will materially and significantly limit the opportunities for multiple team events to operate or exist,” The Gazelle Group president Rick Giles wrote in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by
Sportico. Attached to his letter was a spreadsheet analyzing 2,493 non-conference men’s basketball games from November to December 2024, which found that 82% of all neutral-site games were played as part of MTEs.
“Hoping these MTE games will be replaced on their own is a fool’s errand,” Giles wrote. “Over time, there have been fewer and fewer dynamic, high-profile non-conference match-ups outside of MTEs.”
He predicted that this will push schools to play more “guarantee” or “buy” games, ultimately weakening the NCAA Tournament by limiting the data available for the selection committees to properly choose and seed teams.
“This proposed legislation does not require anyone to change their regular-season schedule and provides simplicity and greater flexibility as teams review their team and scheduling needs each season,” Big West Conference commissioner Dan Butterly, chair of the men’s basketball oversight committee, said in a statement in March when his group
formally proposed the measure.
There are 34 men’s basketball MTEs slated for the upcoming 2025-26 season, according to college hoops website,
Blogging the Bracket, including at least 13 home-game MTEs hosted by schools.
Starsiak thinks the NCAA rule change “essentially kills” the need for the latter, at least when it comes to high-major and top-100-type programs.
“Unless that staff is so strapped, you are not going to hire a third-party to build it,” he said.
Dan Shell, owner of the Acrisure Classic held in Thousand Palms, Calif., said he thinks that his event and others will still have attractive selling points, even if their business model has to adapt.
“Teams are going to want experiences for their student-athletes and want to get more than one game at a time,” Shell, president of Total Sports Consulting, said. “It is hard to fill a 32-game schedule with just single games over the calendar. I think the financials are going to look different, and we’ll have to make them work in a way [for schools]. MTEs didn’t have to pay as much [before], because teams wanted to play that extra game each year. Teams won’t need to play in any of these, and operators like myself are going to have to make it attractive.”
He predicted that lower-tier Power Five schools, as well as programs outside the P5, will likely struggle to secure high-level opponents; athletes will lose out on trips to “warm-weather destinations and major metropolitan areas,” along with the NIL opportunities those experiences can bring; and college basketball will ultimately face a decline in interest in the early part of the season.
“Teams play games in MTEs that they would not otherwise play, and this produces matchups fans would not otherwise see,” Giles wrote to the D-I council. “This delivers viewership opportunities during non-conference play which would not otherwise exist.”