The NCAA women’s and men’s basketball oversight committees will forward a proposal to the Division I Council to begin the 2020-21 college basketball season on Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein reported.
He said the two committees agreed on the date Tuesday. The Division I Council is scheduled to meet Sept. 16 and could vote on the proposal then. Whatever start date is set undoubtedly will be conditional on the coronavirus pandemic not worsening as winter approaches.
Nov. 10 was the originally scheduled start date.
Will Pac-12 wait longer?
Rothstein said the Pac-12, which announced last month that its teams wouldn’t play until January, had lobbied to the committees for a Dec. 4 start date but said a source indicated the conference “could probably work with” the Nov. 25 start.
Despite the reported tentative agreement on a start date, the NCAA still must determine how many practices could be allowed, as well as the expectations of how many games a team must play to be eligible for the NCAA Tournament.
The tournament was canceled on March 12 as the NBA, NHL and MLS paused their seasons because of the spread of the virus. All three leagues resumed play in a “bubble,” and there has been talk of NCAA basketball holiday tournaments, at least, being held in a bubble. The NCAA has applied to trademark the term “Battle in the Bubble.”
–Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)
