Utah Valley, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) regular-season basketball champion, is eligible to play in the tournament after being sued by the conference over exit fees. The court injunction prevents the team from participating in postseason tournaments and from receiving postseason awards. The dispute stemmed from a lawsuit alleging Utah Valley refused to pay $1 million as a contractually obligated exit fee. Utah Valley, which is set to officially join the Big West Conference in July, applied for a second stay to allow its men's and women's teams to compete in the league basketball tournament.