2020-21 Season

NCAA to provide direction on season start by mid-September

The NCAA released a statement today regarding the start of the 2020-21 season. NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt noted that there are contingency plans in place to provide alternatives to a November 10th start date and that the NCAA would “provided direction” my mid-September on the start of the 2020-21 season.

Here’s the full NCAA statement:

As we prepare for the 2020-21 college basketball season, we have exercised patience and discipline in monitoring the effects of COVID-19 and making decisions regarding the season. We have learned a great deal over the course of the summer, and with health and safety being our priority, we have developed and studied contingency plans for alternatives to the scheduled Nov. 10 start date.

In the coming weeks, the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Oversight Committees will take the lead with me in a collaborative process of finalizing any recommendations for consideration by the NCAA Division I Council for the start of the college basketball season. By mid-September, we will provide direction about whether the season and practice start on time or a short-term delay is necessitated by the ongoing pandemic.

We recognize that we are living and operating in an uncertain time, and it is likely that mid-September will be just the first milestone for many important decisions pertaining to the regular season and the NCAA basketball championships. While circumstances may warrant flexibility resulting in a different and perhaps imperfect season, the ultimate goal is to safely provide student-athletes and teams with a great college basketball experience.

Notable Replies

  1. Superfan16

    Big fan of the transparency in this decision. Breath of fresh air compared to the football disaster. Gave us a *rough date and told us what would be decided at that time.

  2. umhoops

    Of note, the NCAA has a lot of control over college basketball and basically no control over college football.

    NCAA will do every thing that it can to make sure there’s an NCAA Tournament. As “imperfect” as it might be.

  3. CoryR

    My prediction is they put all 64 teams in some kind of “mega bubble” in Indianapolis and play the thing out.

  4. bobohle

    Do you mean after some type of regular season whatever it may be?

  5. CoryR

    Yes, I think each conference will have to have a plan to try safely play some games. If a team gets infected and has to miss games that’ll just be another level added to what will be the hardest job any selection committee will ever have to do.

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