We had a good feeling it was coming after news broke about a recommendation by the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball oversight committees around the same time, but now we have an official date.
The NCAA basketball season is all set and confirmed for a start date of November 25, just one day after Thanksgiving. The Division I Council voted Wednesday to postpone the season from the original start date of November 10.
The decision aligns with the timetable by which a lot of college campuses have decided to send students home for winter break, meaning there is less chance for community spread for the student-athletes.
“The fact our campuses will be clearing out, it will be possible to just further control the exposures, and the 25th gives us that opportunity,” said Division I Council chair Grace Calhoun, the athletic director at Penn.
The recommended date was a Saturday, November 21, but the Division I Council wanted to stay away from the overlap of events that could occur on the weekend with football games also in the mix.
As a part of the new date, the maximum number of games has been reduced from 31 to 27.
“The rationale was that during the season teams tend to play an average of two games a week, so the fact we’re shortening the season by two weeks necessitated the reduction in games so we’re not being counterproductive and trying to jam more in a shortened season,” Calhoun said.
🚨 SEASON UPDATE 🚨
The 2020-21 college basketball season will start Wednesday, November 25.
👉 https://t.co/xwqbNxcmlH pic.twitter.com/d5nwag5rIR— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) September 16, 2020
Likewise, the minimum number of contests that must be played for NCAA Tournament consideration has been trimmed from 25 to 13. The lower number for consideration is really a byproduct of the realization that the pandemic could strike a few games from teams’ schedules.
“We fully anticipate there are going to be some issues as we go through the season, much like we’ve seen in football, so we want there to be flexibility for institutions to put together seasons,” she said.
For Ohio State specifically, its season was originally scheduled to start on November 11 at home against Oakland. That game and ones also at home against Niagra (November 15) and Akron (November 19) will be the only games affected.
Well, aside from the Battle 4 Atlantis that will reportedly be moved from the balmy and beachy Bahamas to the cold and flat South Dakota plains.
Anyway, bring on some hoops.
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