MIAMI – Bonus Play, Conference USA's new men's basketball scheduling format which pits league teams against one another, in group stages, in the two weeks before the C-USA Tournament, begins next weekend.
Headed into this week's games against Rice and North Texas, FIU's 5-7 conference record has it in position to enter Bonus Play in group two, where it will face teams that are in sixth through 10th place in the conference standings.
Click here for up to date Conference USA standings.
HOW BONUS PLAY WORKS
After all 14 schools have played one another, teams will be grouped into one of three pods: the top five (1-5), middle five (6-10) and bottom four teams (11-14) in the standings. Teams will play the opponents in their pod during Feb. 23-March 6, and each team will play two home and two road games.
Possible Group Two Matchups
No. 6: home vs. 7/8, away vs. 9/10
No. 7: home vs. 8/9, away vs. 6/10
No. 8: home vs. 9/10, away vs. 6/7
No. 9: home vs. 6/10, away vs. 7/8
No. 10: home vs. 6/7, away vs. 8/9
Regardless how a team does in Bonus Play, each team will remain in its respective group for the C-USA Tournament: if the No. 6 team goes 4-0 in Bonus Play and the No. 5 team goes 0-4, the No. 6 team can't finish higher than sixth and thus can't be higher than a sixth seed in the conference tournament.
WHY BONUS PLAY?
The goal of Bonus Play is to get more C-USA teams into the NCAA postseason tournament and improve their seeding when they get in. By having the top teams playing one another, the top teams have more opportunities to earn resume-boosting wins.
WHEN WILL WE KNOW?
On Feb. 16, all teams will be ranked one through 14 based on the 14-game conference record. Ties will be broken by the C-USA tie-breaker policy, which starts with head-to-head matchups and continues to how teams did against the top teams in the league in descending order through the standings until the tie is broken.
CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
The 2019 Air Force Reserve C-USA Basketball Championships presented by Baylor Scott & White Sports Performance Center at the Star will be held in Frisco, Texas, March 13-16, at the Ford Center.
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