Non-Conference Scheduling... how does it work?

[GoatHouse]

I've never really understood how non-conference scheduling works. It's nice to see that we will have a lot of interesting games coming up in the NBE with the B1G/Big 12 challenges, along with the tournaments we got into, but how come we rarely schedule UMass and other regional rivals? (dare I mention OBE schools like Pitt, Cuse, BC...) I feel that it would greatly benefit both schools. UMass isn't really that tough of an opponent either... I feel like they could nicely slide in to the Coppin State spot we always seem to make room for

As I mentioned, I don't really understand how all of this works so this could be a really ignorant take. Please enlighten me!