The Basketball Travelers Invitational, which starts tonight, is BYU's three-night men's basketball tournament that will have to fight for interest this weekend.

It happens to be the biggest football time of the year. And that isn't the first obstacle the Cougars have encountered while taking another shot at playing host to a four-team event.

"We wanted to have it earlier this time," said senior associate athletic director Brian Santiago, who oversees both basketball programs. "Two years ago we had it around Christmas, which is a tough time for games. Students aren't around and you don't get as good of a (crowd)."

But what will the atmosphere be like this weekend when North Florida, Rice and Cal Poly come to town?

All three teams were contracted to play in Provo through Basketball Travelers, a company that BYU also has a relationship with. It has helped the Cougars plan foreign trips, like the summer of 2007 trek to France.

Santiago said BYU had a list of Basketball Travelers associates it could choose from, though he doesn't recall its size. The one drawback was there were no BCS conference members to choose from.

Saturday's two games could be a wash attendance-wise, because of a certain football game (BYU-Utah, duh) that will have interest pointing to Salt Lake City. It starts at 4 p.m., while the basketball game (BYU vs. Cal Poly) is at 8:30.

By NCAA rule, BYU could host a basketball tournament again but with a few stipulations: a school cannot host the same exempt event (three games counting as one on each teams' schedule), at the same location, on the same dates as a previous time.

So BYU thought this weekend would be perfect. That was before the Mountain West Conference unveiled the football schedule. The BYU-Utah tilt has run into Thanksgiving the past couple of years since teams went to a 12-game schedule.

The other issue, which will be obvious to fans, is the opposition. There are no prime names compared to 2006.

Brainiacs or fans of Utah Jazz player Morris Almond may get a kick out of seeing Rice (3-27 last year). There's also smart-kid school Cal Poly (12-17). And Utah Valley University sympathizers may appreciate North Florida, a fledgling Division I program which is far less competitive than the local Wolverines -- UNF went 3-26 last year and is missing two key starters right now.

None of the three teams will come to Provo with a win, 0-3 combined.

The biggest draw, outside of course watching the Cougars play (and likely win) is Ben Braun. The former Cal coach, who won at the Marriott Center in 2004 during BYU's 9-21 season, is in his first year at Rice.

Two years ago, the Cougars drew a stronger field in program ability, and name recognition. Liberty was joined by Oral Roberts and Big East Conference member Seton Hall.

That Seton Hall game was the marquee non-conference home game of 2006-07. This year the Cougars will play Jan. 3 against nationally ranked Wake Forest -- a very rare visit from the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference.

It looks like BYU will play host to a tournament like this every couple of years. Santiago pointed out that last year BYU played in a four-team Las Vegas field (facing Louisville and North Carolina). But those opportunities are rare because a lot of them happen to involve Sunday games -- a no-no for the private faith-based school.

Its current 48-game home winning streak apparently didn't help entice many challengers.

The basketball team fell on another case of hard-luck timing.

The biggest game of the year, Dec. 20 in Phoenix against nationally ranked Arizona State -- standout Lee Cummard's homecoming -- is on the same day as the Las Vegas Bowl. That's where the Cougars have played three consecutive years, and aspire to a fourth (if not a BCS-affiliated game).

That will leave some BYU fans in the desert wondering where to follow: close to home for hoops, or a longer drive for the gridiron?

The biggest benefit for the Cougars is the tournament should allow coach Dave Rose a chance to show his team how to get ready for the grind of the Mountain West Conference tournament in March.

By Saturday night, it will be BYU's fifth game to start the season since the previous Friday. The team returned home early Wednesday morning from Los Angeles, after a blowout win at Pepperdine.

"You'll hear coach Rose say a lot that the toughest game of a tournament to win is the first one," junior forward Jonathan Tavernari said. "We're going to have to be ready."

Considering the opposition, and BYU's dominance at home, it's a stretch to say the Cougars are fearful of not showing up.

But will the fans?

BYU is confident they will. After all, 3,000 more of them showed up for the season opener this year than last year -- and that was to watch the Cougars play a team they beat by 40 points a year ago.

Rose's team is still sorting out its rotation, and there's a certain charm to watching a young team grow up. And, of course, not playing during a holiday weekend can free up some calendars for folks.

"It will be more access to our fans and especially the students," Santiago said. "That's one of the reasons we moved it up like we did. And we have the Saturday game at 8:30 p.m. so that people can watch the football game (at 4 p.m.) and still have a chance to catch some basketball."