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BYU's Richie Saunders (right) takes a shot over freshman AJ Dybantsa during summer workouts at the Marriott Center Annex on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. Photography by Nate Edwards/BYU © BYU PHOTO 2025 All Rights Reserved photo@byu.edu (801)422-7322

Nate Edwards, BYU Photo

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BYU men's basketball coach Kevin Young (left) reacts during a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Keba Keita (in white) attempts a dunk against VCU in an NCAA first round men's basketball game at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Thursday, March 20, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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The “AJ Dybantsa Effect” is in full swing.

The nation’s No.1 recruit chose BYU in December of 2024, making his decision public on ESPN’s “First Take.” Since then, the impact on the Cougar program has been immediate and far reaching: Recruiting, tickets sales, merchandise sales and social media — as well as expectations — have all gone into hyper speed.

Perhaps his greatest impact has been on scheduling, because everyone wants a piece of the Cougars and Dybantsa.

BYU opens the 2025-26 season with an exhibition game at Nebraska on Oct. 18, beginning the most unique schedule journey in program history that includes two exhibition games against power conference opponents, four neutral site matchups and a trip to Florida for the Terry’s Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational.

Opponents include the aforementioned Huskers, North Carolina, Villanova, Wisconsin, UConn and Clemson.

BYU assistant coach Chris Burgess has been at the forefront of the scheduling negotiations, along with new Director of Athletics Brian Santiago.

“AJ jumped on board, and I’m not going to lie to you, every event organizer in the country reached out to Brian or myself or Coach (Kevin Young) or other assistants on our staff,” Burgess said. “Anything they got, they would forward it to me. We’re very selective with what we’re trying to accomplish with our scheduling.”

Bigger Goals

Burgess recalled the Cougars competing in the West Coast Conference and the Mountain West Conference, where they were just trying to somehow get into the NCAA Tournament and make a run.

Things have changed since moving to the Big 12 and hiring Young as head coach.

“Communicating with Coach Young and Brian, we’re not just trying to get in,” Burgess said. “We want a seed. We want a top four seed. So we started doing a deep dive over the past five years-plus to figure out, ‘What does it take?'”

BYU didn’t have to look far to find a scheduling blueprint that worked for a higher seed.

“Without going too far into the weeds, Arizona, at the end of the day, got a four seed last year,” he said. “We tied their record in the Big 12 (14-6) and if you look at the last 10 games, we were actually the hotter team, if we’re being honest. But their nonconference schedule was top 50 and ours was bottom 340. They didn’t win one of those marquee games, they were zero and five. In a nutshell, that tells you all you need to know. You’re punished for your schedule or rewarded for your schedule.

“(Mark) Pope and Kentucky did a phenomenal job with that, right? They put together a great schedule and got a three seed (with 11 losses). They were another example of how you’ve got to challenge yourself. They (the NCAA committee) are looking at that.”

Building a Brand

Young and his coaching staff have assembled what they think is a very good team for 2025-26, adding Dybantsa and former Baylor point guard Robert Wright III to a roster that includes returning starters Richie Saundes and Keba Keta, as well as four other Division I transfers and Austrian sharpshooter Aleksej Kostic.

“We wanted a good seed, and then everybody was trying to get AJ and the BYU brand at their event,” Burgess said. “We started narrowing it down to who we wanted to play. You get Madison Square Garden. I got to play there a long time ago, but come on, man, it’s super special. You get to play an ACC team (Clemson) and you get to play on the ESPN Network. That’s what college basketball is all about. So we wanted that one and things started brewing more and more. There was a lot of talk back and forth. We didn’t think it was going to happen, but we were able to lock down Boston Garden and a team that won two of the past three national championships (UConn). We knew it was going to be a big-time television game.”

The BYU coaching staff recognized there would be additional travel for the neutral site games but decided the experience was worth it.

“It was going to be the marketing and marquee games that BYU deserves and it was going to help our nonconference strength of schedule,” Burgess said. “Then we were searching for a marquee game at the Delta Center and Wisconsin came about.”

The Cougars were able to land the exhibition games at Nebraska and with North Carolina at the Delta Center due to changes in NCAA rules that allowed those events to take place.

“We did a two-year deal with Nebraska so they’ll come back to the Marriott Center next year for an exhibition,” Burgess said. “Then Brian came with this North Carolina game. They kind of fell on, ‘Hey, we’ll come out there for one year but we want to do the Delta Center.’ It was a no-brainer for us and for our fans.”

Taking on the Challenge

The key components of the scheduling, Burgess said, were the draw of Dybantsa and and the Sweet 16 finish in 2025.

“At the end of the day, it’s the BYU brand,” Burgess said. “It’s what we wanted to do in the nonconference and everybody wanted us as part of their ticket. The team we’ve put together, and what we did last year, the run we made, everybody wanted us because of that. They know our fans travel and our fans are everywhere. We’re a worldwide brand.”

Don’t get it twisted: Burgess and the Cougars know they are embarking on a very ambitious adventure.

“It’s going to be challenging, man,” Burgess said. “We’d love to go undefeated in those games, that’s our goal. But at the end of the day, we’re going to learn a lot about ourselves. We’ve got to challenge ourselves. We’ve got to prepare for the Big 12 because we’re playing better competition. Kevin was talking to us and he said, ‘Our nonconference schedule, it didn’t help us last year. What we’re trying to do every single year, we need to be challenged.’ So this is what we’re trying to do.”

BYU Men’s Basketball 2025-25 Non-Conference Schedule

Saturday, Oct. 18 at Nebraska (exhibition)

Friday, Oct. 24 North Carolina (at Delta Center, SLC)

Monday, Nov. 3 Villanova (Hall of Fame Series Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena)

Saturday, Nov. 8 Holy Cross

Tuesday, Nov. 11 Delaware

Saturday, Nov. 15 UConn (Hall of Fame Series Boston at TD Garden)

Friday, Nov. 21 Wisconsin (at Delta Center, SLC)

Thursday, Nov. 27 and Friday, Nov. 28 Terry’s Chocolate ESPN Events Center

Wednesday, Dec. 3 Cal Baptist (at Delta Center, SLC)

Tuesday, Dec. 9 Clemson (Jimmy V Classioc at Madison Square Garden)

Saturday, Dec. 13 UC Riverside

Tuesday, Dec. 16 Pacific

Friday, Dec. 18 Abilene Christian

Monday, Dec. 22 Eastern Washington