Over the last couple of weeks, all attention has been focused on the ongoing saga relating to the 2020 college football season due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has been tumultuous, to say the least.
With the football season in jeopardy, the basketball season has been a bit of an afterthought to many in the sports media. But not to college administrators, who are already concerned about the prospect of men’s and women’s hoops this fall.
A report from ESPN on Thursday provided an overview of the obstacles facing the college basketball season and what the powers that be are saying about the current plan.
An immediate challenge is the same one that doomed all levels of football below the Power Five: having the resources to maintain testing standards and safety protocols. While wealthier programs may be able to foot the bill for this, smaller schools can’t.
This inequity would be even more pronounced in college basketball than in football, as there is no distinction between FCS and FBS programs within Division I. As Jeff Borzello notes, the biggest threat to the season is still ensuring player safety at the institutional level.
The biggest hurdle, obviously, will be the virus itself. As one conference official noted, not much has changed between when the sport shut down on March 12 and today — beside the risk of serious heart issues stemming from the coronavirus. — Jeff Borzello
But aside from the primary threat of the virus, secondary logistical issues facing administrators are complicating the plans for the sport.
For example, the Pac-12 and Ivy League have already delayed the beginning of the season until at least Jan. 1. Based on the sentiment of figures in other leagues, they probably won’t be the last to do so.
UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said he is expecting a January start at the earliest across the board. If that were the case, conferences would in all likelihood move to cancel nonconference games.
This would make any potential NCAA Tournament selection process extremely difficult, as such a format would render the NET meaningless. For mid-major conferences, they would have very few opportunities to prove their worth to the committee.
While Big Ten teams would play 16 of 20 games against Quadrant 1 opponents, the Colonial Athletic Association would likely feature zero Quad 1 games. But as one conference official pointed out, differentiating among potential NCAA tournament teams is why there’s a selection committee. — Jeff Borzello
The common theme among conference and school administrators seems to be limiting travel and keeping the season relatively region-locked.
The idea of attempting to replicate the NBA’s successful bubble experiment, which has resulted in zero positive results over the last four weeks, is reportedly gaining momentum among decision-makers.
Multiple potential formats are being discussed, including dividing conferences into smaller groups, each with their own bubble.
One option floated was to split a conference into three groups, put the groups in mini-bubbles for a weekend, play a round-robin format and then do it again two weeks later. Several sources mentioned ideas focused on mini-bubbles and teams playing several games in the same weekend. Another idea mentioned was to have two large bubbles per conference, one in December and one in January, in order to get a full conference season in. It’s unclear if any of these ideas will work, but the emphasis on keeping things regional and isolated is of utmost importance — as well as not testing the limits of amateurism. — Jeff Borzello
As Borzello noted, however, this would be a serious challenge to the purportedly amateur status of college athletes. The same hurdle seems to have tabled such discussions for football.
Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott echoed this sentiment, saying, “Unlike professional sports, college sports cannot operate in a bubble.”
Still, hypothetical talks of a bubble will surely disappoint college hoops fans, as it seems to signal that allowing fans in the arena is not a possibility currently on the table.
As the ESPN report notes, the men’s NCAA Tournament nets $1 billion annually in revenue. Having the tournament is the top priority at the moment, as revenue for schools from ticket sales pales in comparison to conference payouts from the postseason.
The men’s tournament brings in nearly $1 billion worth of revenue, and the financial boost it provides to its member schools is significant. The NCAA distributes tournament money to its conferences in “units,” with each one being worth roughly $280,000, a number that rises by a couple of thousand each year. And that amount if paid out annually over six years, so even teams that are one-and-done earn around $1.7 million per season for their conferences. Having fans in the stands is lower on the priority list.
While the report provides some clarity as to how college administrators currently view the COVID-19 situation as it relates to basketball, we will likely have a much better idea about the fate of the season once that of the football season is resolved. Should it be postponed or canceled entirely, it would be a bad sign about the prospect of a basketball season.
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