NCAA basketball season pushed back to open day before Thanksgiving
(AP) — The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball season will begin Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving.
The Division I Council voted Wednesday to push the start date back from the originally scheduled Nov. 10 as one of several precautions against the spread of coronavirus.
The later start date coincides 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 flareup of COVID-19. Closed campuses could serve as a quasi bubble for players and provide a window for nonconference games.
“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
men’s and women’s basketball oversight committees had jointly
recommended a start date of Nov. 21, a Saturday. Calhoun said the
council wanted to avoid a weekend start date because of potential
overlaps of basketball and football games on campuses.
The maximum number of regular-season 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.
The
minimum number of games for consideration for the NCAA Tournament was
cut from 25 to 13. Calhoun said the low minimum is an acknowledgement
that schools probably will experience different levels of COVID-19 cases
and have to alter 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.
Teams can start preseason practices
Oct. 14. Beginning Monday, teams will be allowed to participate in
strength and conditioning and sport-related meetings and skill
instruction for up to 12 hours a week, with an eight-hour limit on skill
instruction.
No scrimmages against other teams or exhibitions
are allowed. It also was recommended each team play a minimum of four
nonconference games.
The council is scheduled to meet again Oct.
13-14 and could delay the start date and change other pieces of the
basketball framework if circumstances surrounding the virus warrant.
The
council also voted to extend the recruiting dead period for all sports
until Jan. 1. In-person recruiting is prohibited during a dead period,
though phone calls and other correspondence are allowed.
Also
approved was civic engagement legislation. Practicing, competing and
other countable athletically related activities will be prohibited on
the Tuesday after the first Monday of November each year, including this
year’s Election Day on Nov. 3.
The Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee proposed the legislation to provide a day each year dedicated to increasing opportunities for athletes to participate in activities such as voting or community service.