The Division I Council voted on Wednesday to push the start date back from the originally scheduled Nov. 10 to Nov. 25, the day before the United States’ Thanksgiving in 2020. The change was made with the decision most schools made to send students home from Thanksgiving until January out of concern about a potential late-fall and early-winter flare-up of COVID-19 in mind.
According to Division I Council chair Grace Calhoun, the athletic director at Penn, “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.” She also added the following.
“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.
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.”
Practices can officilally begin on Oct. 14 according to the press release, with strength, conditioning and sport-related meetings up to 12 hours per day permitted starting this coming Monday, with an eight-hour limit on skill instruction. No scrimmages against other teams or exhibitions are allowed.
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