The BYU men's basketball team hasn't hosted a preseason tournament since the 1999-2000 season.

That's about to change.

The Cougars' 2006-07 nonconference schedule, announced on Friday, will feature the BYU Holiday Classic, a three-day, four-team tournament at the Marriott Center on Dec. 28-30. The nonconference schedule also includes dates with 2006 NCAA Tournament runner-up UCLA and 2005 Final Four participant Michigan State.

The teams invited to the Holiday Classic include Liberty from the Big South Conference, Mid-Continent Conference champion Oral Roberts and Seton Hall from the Big East. It's not actually a tournament but more of round-robin format, where each team plays three games.

"We look forward to the challenge of playing some of the best teams in the country and believe the BYU Holiday Classic will be a great event for our fans," BYU head coach Dave Rose said. "This should be a balanced, competitive schedule that will help us prepare for the conference. We hope to continue to improve as a team and build on the success our program achieved last season."

BYU Associate Athletic Director Brian Santiago worked with Rose on the schedule and said the Holiday Classic takes advantage of a new NCAA rule.

"Before, you could only go to an exempt event (like a tournament in Alaska or Hawaii) every other year," Santiago said. "They just changed the rule so you can go to an exempt event every year. You can play three or four games that count as just one on your schedule. Instead of going somewhere else, we decided to host an exempt event."

BYU first hosted the Cougar Classic in 1975 and the four-team tournament ran until 1999, when it was discontinued.

"What happened was we couldn't get great teams to come to the Marriott Center anymore," Santiago said. "When we heard about the NCAA rule change, we thought we could get a great team to come in from a power conference, and we said, 'let's do it.'"

Seton Hall, which made the 2006 NCAA tournament field, will be the first Big East team to visit the Marriott Center since 1990 when St. John's played in the Cougar Classic. BYU's last three NCAA Tournament opponents -- Syracuse in 2004, Connecticut in 2003, and Cincinnati in 2001 -- are Big East teams. The Cougars and Pirates will meet for the first time since an 82-80 Seton Hall overtime win at the Queen City Invitational on Dec. 29, 1958. BYU won the only other meeting during the Cougars' national championship run in 1951, downing the Pirates 69-59 in the National Invitation Tournament semifinals.

"The Cougar Classic had a great tradition," Santiago said. "We want to establish the BYU Holiday Classic in the same way. It will be great basketball for three days. It's right after Christmas and right before conference play gets going."

BYU partnered with Basketball Travelers, an event-planning company that helped put on the Paradise Jam Tournament in the Virgin Islands in 2002, a tournament BYU attended.

The Cougars open the regular season with a date against reigning Pac-10 champion UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on Nov. 15. The Ben Howland-coached squad finished the season ranked No. 2 in the nation with an overall record of 32-7 after falling to Florida in the 2006 NCAA Championship game.

BYU will play Michigan State of the Big Ten on a neutral court at The Palace of Auburn Hills -- home of the Detroit Pistons -- on Dec. 9. The Spartans, who finished 22-12 last season, will play BYU at the Delta Center in 2007. Michigan State has appeared in four of the last eight NCAA Final Fours, winning the title in 2000, and finished the 2006 season listed No. 27 in the nation after being upset by eventual Final Four participant George Mason in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. BYU holds a 4-3 edge in the all-time series, with the last meeting a 96-88 Cougar win at the 1986 Cable Car Classic.

"I love Coach Rose's vision for this program," Santiago said. "The schedule has a good balance and gives our guys a chance to be very successful. Coach Rose knows for us to be great we need to play great teams, so at the end of the year we can say we beat a UCLA or a Michigan State. We believe we can be a Top 25 program."

The Cougars will see their first action in exhibition on Nov. 2, hosting the Brock University Badgers from St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, before a Nov. 8 exhibition against the University of Montevallo (Ala.) Falcons, who went 29-5 last season and advanced to the 2006 NCAA Division II Elite Eight. Unlike past seasons, the annual Cougar Tipoff will follow exhibition play on Nov. 11, giving BYU fans a free opportunity to see an exciting Cougar lineup that includes Freshman All-American Trent Plaisted and All-MWC performers Keena Young and Rashaun Broadus.

After beginning the season at UCLA, BYU's home opener is set for Nov. 18 against Idaho State as part of a doubleheader coinciding with the BYU-New Mexico football game at LaVell Edwards Stadium. The Idaho State game is the beginning of a three-game homestand for the Cougars, which also includes games against Portland (Nov. 22) and Southern Utah (Nov. 24). The following week will feature two road contests at Boise State (Nov. 29) and at Weber State (Dec. 2) as the annual Christmas Around the World celebration is held in the Marriott Center.

San Jose State of the Western Athletic Conference will come to Provo on Dec. 6 before the Cougars face Michigan State on Dec. 9 at The Palace. BYU will then travel to Texas to face Lamar on Dec. 13 before hosting in-state rival Utah State on Dec. 16. The Cougars will finish a week of final exams with a home contest against Division II Western Oregon on Dec. 22 prior to hosting the BYU Holiday Classic.

Including the yet-to-be released 2006-07 MWC schedule, BYU will play a minimum of nine games against teams that qualified for last year's NCAA Tournament.

Daily Herald Sports Editor Darnell Dickson can be reached at 344-2555 or by e-mail at ddickson@heraldextra.com

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This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C1.