OGDEN — The postseason landscape that the Weber State Wildcats will see this year will be significantly different than in years past. The Big Sky Conference has made the decision to shake things up.

For the first time in conference history, the postseason tournament will take place at a neutral site. The 2016 Big Sky Basketball Championships for both the men and women will be held March 7-12 at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada.

This is a big change and, according to Big Sky deputy commissioner Ron Loghry, one that the administrators and coaches have been asking for due to the rising costs and short notice of the old format.

"It just became hard, expensive and cumbersome for the schools and they have been looking at this for years," said Loghry. "When you don't know where you are playing, you can't schedule travel. It was also hard for our hosts. Even though it is great to host, it is very hard. You have to go and secure rooms for each team and when you are doing this just three or four weeks out, you are doing it on a hope and a prayer. Unfortunately, hotels don't work on a hope and a prayer."

The new format also has ramifications for the regular season champion. In years past, the team that finished the regular season with the best record would host the tournament. This format incentivized finishing the season at the top, as the No. 1 seed would have home court advantage throughout the tournament.

Weber State has certainly benefited from this format, as the Weber State men's team has hosted the tournament 11 times since 1975, which is by far the most of any other team in the conference. It would certainly be understandable for the Wildcats to not support this change, but head coach Randy Rahe claims that's not the case.

"I think it is good for the league to try it," said Rahe. "That is what most conferences do. We are trying to move forward as a conference and I think one of those steps is to move to a neutral site and get everybody involved in the tournament."

Loghry echoed that this sentiment is shared by all of the other coaches in the conference.

"We do hear that we have taken away the incentive to be number one, but the coaches scoff at that," said Loghry. "The coaches say they don't care where they play, they want to be the top seed. The coaches don't buy into (losing the incentive to be the top seed) and really pushed to not fall for that argument."

Another important change that comes with the new format is that every team in the conference will now be able to participate in the tournament. In the old format, only the top eight teams would qualify to participate in postseason play. According to Loghry, the conference wanted to create a format that would provide a memorable postseason experience for every team.

"We're trying to make basketball better in this conference," said Loghry. "It has been a goal of ours every year. The issue is that we don't have a brand identity in basketball because we leave teams home. So these teams that jump in and out of the top eight can't build any momentum and there is nothing for them or their fans to get behind each year."

The new tournament format provides each team in the Big Sky a more defined postseason experience and allows even the lowest team the opportunity to upset a higher seed and make a run for the championship, a fact that Rahe fully supports.

"The best thing they did was to get everybody involved in the tournament," said Rahe. "I think that is what real conferences do. They don't eliminate teams. I think it will be a great week of basketball."

This is important as the Big Sky is represented in the NCAA tournament by just the conference tournament champion. While the conference can do little to change that, the league wanted to offer a similar experience for the teams in the conference who would not advance to the Big Dance.

"We were doing somewhat of a disservice to every team except the one that we advanced to the NCAA tournament," said Loghry. "The Big Sky tournament is the postseason experience for the other programs. We wanted to create a student-athlete championship experience. That was our number one goal."

However, the Big Sky still needed a host. They put together a committee to decide where to play the tournament and the initial idea was put forth to play the tournament in Las Vegas with the other conferences around the country.

"Initially the coaches and a couple of administrators wanted to join the party and go to Vegas," said Loghry. "When we started looking we realized there just weren't that many places to play. So we thought about who wanted us rather than where we can go."

Eight different entities submitted bids to host the tournament and the committee eventually decided on Reno.

"Reno offered the one location, first and foremost, were both men and women could be there and play in the same arena," said Loghry. "Here is an opportunity to have every team in the same location and in the same hotels and it just seemed to create a synergy. And frankly, Reno really wanted us."

This is new ground for the conference and for each team and there are bound to be a few wrinkles that will need to be ironed out after this inaugural year. Holding the tournament at a neutral site comes with its own challenges such as fan attendance. This is a fact that is not lost on Loghry.

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Whether easier or harder, Weber State's path to a Big Sky tournament title got a facelift beginning in 2016. The Big Sky Conference will play its annual postseason men's and women's basketball tournament in Reno, Nevada, starting in 2016, the league announced Friday. The tournament will be played at the downtown Reno Events Center, a 5,000-seat facility built in 2005 that also hosts the NBA D-League's Reno Bighorns.

"We hope everybody travels and brings a great crowd," said Loghry. "But we also know we haven't done this for 25 years. It is incumbent on us and our institutions to really teach our fans what it means to travel to a postseason event. It is also a work in progress on how we are doing and what we consider successful."

This is an important step for the Big Sky in solidifying their relevance in the college basketball landscape and the road leads right through Reno.

For local fans who would like to attend the event, the ticket and hotel information can be found below:

Fans can buy tickets and make hotel reservations for the 2016 Big Sky Conference Basketball Championships by visiting www.roadtoreno.com.

The Weber State traveling party is assigned to stay at the Eldorado Resort. To book hotel accommodations at the Eldorado, call 1-800-648-5966. Use the code "YWCATS" when booking reservations to receive a special tournament rate.

The Southern Utah traveling party is assigned to stay at the Silver Legacy Resort. To book hotel accommodations directly, call 1-800-687-8733. Use the code "MWBIS16" when booking reservations to receive a special tournament rate."

Mark Douglas covers Weber State football and basketball for KSL.com. Contact him at markdouglasmail@gmail.com or on Twitter @marktweetsports.

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