Jazz launch Beehive Classic basketball event with BYU, Utah, USU, Weber State
Wildcat senior center Joel Bolomboy (21) grabs a rebound while Cougar defender Braiden Shaw (31) and Weber State's Richaud Gittens (23) fight for position Saturday, December 5, 2015 at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. BYU beat Weber State 73-68 to drop the Wildcats to 5-3 on the season.
Wildcat junior guard Jeremy Senglin (30) drives to the basket around Cougar defender Corbin Kaufusi (44) Saturday, December 5, 2015 at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Wildcat junior forward Kyndahl Hill (35) tries to box out Cougar defender Kyle Davis (21) Saturday, December 5, 2015 at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. BYU beat Weber State 73-68 to drop the Wildcats to 5-3 on the season.
BYU vs. Weber State Saturday, December 5, 2015 at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah.
VIDEO: Beehive Classic press conference in Salt Lake City
SALT LAKE CITY — Citing a love of basketball and community, the Utah Jazz are injecting new life into the state’s college basketball rivalries.
The Beehive Classic will bring BYU, Utah, Utah State and Weber State to Salt Lake City for an annual college basketball showcase at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
The event, announced Thursday by Jazz parent company Larry H. Miller Sports & Entertainment (LHMSE), debuts Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017.
“We’re excited. It’s something that’s been talked about for a long time,” LHMSE president Steve Starks told the Standard-Examiner. “It’s an opportunity for our state to come together with the alumni of these four schools and their student bodies.”
Each year, the one-day event will feature an in-state doubleheader. In 2017, BYU will face Weber State while Utah takes on Utah State. Game times have yet to be determined.
BEEHIVE CLASSIC
• Dec. 9, 2017: BYU vs. Weber State; Utah vs. Utah State
• Dec. 8, 2018: USU vs. WSU; BYU vs. Utah
• Dec. 14, 2019: WSU vs. Utah; BYU vs. USU
Starks said it’s an idea he’s heard talked about for years, but recent acrimony around in-state basketball scheduling increased his desire for a centralized event.
After preliminary conversations with each athletic director, Starks brought them all together about three months ago and things moved quickly.
“By the time everybody agreed to meet … it didn’t really take a lot of convincing once we laid out our ideas and plans, and then let them help shape it,” he said.
“We were grateful that the schools started to look for ways to make it happen instead of looking for reasons why it wouldn’t work,” Starks said. “That sense of unity was very evident as we worked through it.”
He said LHMSE wanted to host the classic as another way to bring the community together to celebrate basketball.
Weber State athletic director Jerry Bovee said he was onboard from the start and that the Beehive Classic should rekindle basketball rivalries in the state.
“As programs have grown — as Utah moved to the Pac-12 and BYU moved to the WCC and Utah State is now Mountain West — sometimes those home-and-home rivalries can get lost in all of that shuffle,” Bovee said, with a reminder it’s been nearly five years since his school played Utah.
“We’re excited about the possibilities and opportunities — and what it will mean for our program, what it will mean for college basketball in the state of Utah,” he said.
Each school will be allotted 4,500 tickets and one ticket provides admission to both games. The schools’ portions of the revenue will be evenly shared and Starks said LHMSE will also give a portion of its revenue to each school’s general scholarship fund.
While TV plans still need to be hammered down, Starks said, “We’ve had some preliminary conversations and there’s a lot of interest from the big networks to want to broadcast this. We just need to work out details.”
Starks said the Jazz and LHMSE are also eyeing more ways to turn the Beehive Classic into a true celebration of basketball in Utah. That might take the form of staging a high school game in the morning, or putting together a high school dunk contest and skills competition between the two college games.
Bovee said it’s unlikely the event would cause Utah schools to play each other more than once in a season. Weber State, he said, will work its contracts around each year’s Beehive matchup and will otherwise continue home-and-home series with BYU and Utah State.
He also said conversations with Utah athletic director Chris Hill are ongoing. The two are trying to nail down a time the Wildcats and Utes can meet before their now-scheduled 2019 game at Vivint Arena.
Bovee said head coach Randy Rahe was excited about the progress of the Beehive Classic and hopes the Weber State community will join them in their anticipation.
“I’m hoping our fanbase will embrace it and support it, and want to be part of that night,” Bovee said. “The idea is that we’re going to fill the place up and it will be a celebration of basketball. I think it’s a great thing.”
Contact Brett Hein at bhein@standard.net, follow on Twitter @bhein3 and find him at facebook.com/brettheinwrites.