With college football underway, we now have a set date for the start of men’s and women’s college basketball.
The NCAA Division-I Council approved starting the men’s and women’s 2020-21 season on November 25. Originally, the season was slated to start on Nov. 10.
A big reason for delaying the start of the season for a couple weeks was by the end of November, three-quarters of D-I schools will have concluded their fall in-person classes, making it a more controlled and less populated environment. The thinking is that this will reduce the risk of the spread of COVID-19.
“The new season start date near the Thanksgiving holiday provides the optimal opportunity to successfully launch the basketball season,” said NCAA senior vice president of Basketball Dan Gavitt. “It is a grand compromise of sorts and a unified approach that focuses on the health and safety of student-athletes competing towards the 2021 Division I basketball championship.”
Other highlights of things agreed upon by the committee:
• Men’s teams can schedule 24 regular games and play in one multiple-team tournament, or 25 regular games if a team doesn’t play in a tournament or if they play in a tournament that has only two games played.
• Women’s teams can schedule 23 regular games and participate in one multiple-team tournament, or can play in 25 regular games if they don’t play in any in-season tournaments.
• Teams can start practice on Oct. 14 and hold a maximum of 30 practices in 42 days. Players can practice for a total of 20 hours a week for four hours a day.
