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GREELEY, Colo. -- Northern Colorado coach Tad Boyle has put the finishing touches on what figures to be an exciting and challenging 2009-10 men's basketball schedule.

And it all starts at the beach, with the Bears taking part in the University of Hawaii's Rainbow Classic, and ends with Northern Colorado's final Big Sky Conference regular-season game at Sacramento State. In between, Boyle's program will test itself against a trio of Mountain West foes (Colorado State, Wyoming and TCU), an opponent from the WAC (San Jose State), two teams from the Sun Belt (Denver and Louisiana-Monroe) and a Big 12 power (Oklahoma).

All in all, Northern Colorado, which qualified for its first Big Sky Conference tournament last season and has increased its win total in each of Boyle's three years in Greeley, will play 13 home games, 13 away games and four neutral-site contests during the 2009-10 season.

"This nonconference schedule definitely has some tough teams," Boyle said. "Obviously, you first look at Oklahoma, and TCU is going to be a much-improved team. Wyoming and Colorado State are going to be two improved Mountain West teams. So, we're challenging ourselves on that end and I'm really excited for that. But we've also got some games that we, quite honestly, have a good chance of winning. We've got a really good balance there, and we'll be ready for our league, no question. But we also will be able to build some confidence, especially with some of our younger players."

The Bears open their regular season in Honolulu on Friday, Nov. 13, in the revamped Classic, which is now a four-team round-robin tournament held during the season's opening weekend inside the Stan Sheriff Center. Northern Colorado will face McNeese State, Southern Utah and the host Rainbow Warriors during the event.

"That whole week is going to be huge for our program," Boyle said. "The Rainbow Classic has been around for a long time, and I've been trying to get our team to Hawaii since I got here and find an economical way to do that. Hawaii is going to help significantly with our travel costs to get over there, and that obviously is a big deal in this climate. So, it's a trip that really won't hurt our budget, and it allows us to get our kids on a court in Honolulu and maybe pick up some fans while we're over there.

"I try to have one or two marquee trips a year. When you're recruiting basketball players, they want to play against good competition -- and we're playing teams this year from the Big 12, the Mountain West the WAC and so on -- and they want to play in some nice locations -- and you can't do much better than Hawaii in November. And the Rainbow Classic is a great field for us. We're going to have a chance to play two games on a neutral court, and then we'll have Hawaii, which is a possible ESPN game. There are a lot of appealing aspects of that trip."

Following a two-day appearance (Nov. 20-21) in the Reggie Minton Air Force Classic (opponents are still to be determined) and a trip to North Dakota (Nov. 27), the Bears will open December by continuing their instate rivalry with a home game against Colorado State (Dec. 1). Northern Colorado fell to the Rams 85-74 last season in a tight, back-and-forth contest in Ft. Collins.

The Bears will also travel to Wyoming (Dec. 12) for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Wyoming Shootout in Casper and then head to Oklahoma's Lloyd Noble Center (Dec. 19) and TCU (Dec. 30) to round out the calendar year. Northern Colorado will also host Louisiana-Monroe (Dec. 16), San Jose State (Dec. 21) and Denver (Dec. 28).

"It's hard to get a lot of Division I teams that want to come to Greeley, Colorado," Boyle said. "So we have to do a lot of home-and-home series. Colorado State is a good one for us, and Denver is another one. And now this year, we're just starting one with Wyoming, where we'll go up to Casper this year and they will be back in Butler-Hancock next year. I won't do two-for-ones -- I think you sell your program short when do that -- so we're not going to do that. But we're lucky in that we've got some good programs in the Rocky Mountain area that allow us to get our program the exposure it deserves."

The Big Sky Conference has adopted a Friday-Saturday format for some conference road trips this season (opposed to the Thursday-Saturday method used in previous years), and the Bears will get an early look at that new schedule when they open conference play in early December at Montana State (Dec. 4) and Montana (Dec. 5). Northern Colorado will then take nearly a month off from league action before starting up again at Northern Arizona (Jan. 2).

The Bears will play five of their first seven Big Sky games this season on the road, but six of their last nine conference games will be played inside Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion.

Nevertheless, Boyle knows you can't spend too much time worrying about the whens and wheres of a conference schedule. You play whoever's next on the schedule, he said.

"My philosophy on conference scheduling is that it's a nine-team league and every one of them has to play 16 games, and every team is going to play every other team twice, simple as that," Boyle said. "I try not to get involved in how many games we'll have at home in a row, or how many road games we'll have in a row, or who we play first or who we play last. I just don't get into that. That's not really in my hands.

"I am extremely disappointed, however, in the conference's decision to adopt the Friday-Saturday scheduling. I think Northern Colorado is at a distinct disadvantage when you look at the league schedule. But, there's nothing I can do about. We're just going to play the games. We're not going to cry about it, we're not going to moan about it. We'll persevere and we'll overcome."

Highlights of Northern Colorado's Big Sky schedule include back-to-back home Big Sky Games of the Week against Montana State (Jan. 31) and Northern Arizona (Feb. 7), with the latter contest coming against the Lumberjacks on Super Bowl Sunday.

The Bears' trip to defending Big Sky Tournament champion Portland State (Jan. 15) and Eastern Washington (Jan. 16) will likely be pivotal, as will a key stretch of games in mid-February at defending Big Sky regular-season champion Weber State (Feb. 13) and at home against the Eagles (Feb. 18) and a  home Saturday-night contest against the Vikings (Feb. 20).

"The whole key with a nonconference schedule is that you want to have your team adequately prepared for a tough conference schedule," Boyle said. "And the Big Sky is becoming an increasingly tough, tough league to play in. I think our nonconference schedule will be exciting for our fans and have us in good shape as we enter into Big Sky games this season. I'm looking forward to it."