Dan Gavitt, the senior vice president of basketball for the NCAA, revealed on Monday that he is planning to announce a decision on the start date for the men’s and women’s college basketball seasons “in mid-September”. At the moment, it looks like the seasons will start on time on November 10 or face slight delays.
However, not all conferences in Division I need to follow the NCAA’s proposed start date and different conferences are likely to start at different times.
This is where things are at the big conferences:
There will be no sports for the rest of the 2020 calendar year. This includes basketball, which would start in early November. Therefore, the first basketball game for the Pac-12 is January.
All autumn sports have been postponed, which means it remains to be seen whether basketball and other winter sports will start in early November as scheduled.
Winter sports should happen at the right time, for now, while many autumn sports have small delays, but they should happen. However, most autumn sports will not award championships at the usual times because national participation in these sports has dropped to less than 50%.
University bubbles?
As for the location, a bubble environment like the one the NBA and WNBA created was proposed for off-conference basketball. Another proposal involves the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments being played in a bubble. New York Liberty owner Layshia Clarendon expressed concern about the potential of college athletes competing in a bubble.
Many people do not understand the mental health cost of playing in a bubble. It is insulating, has no limits and has no way out! Thinking about college athletes in a bubble makes me shiver, because there are already high rates of mental health problems in college athletics.
– Layshia Clarendon (@Layshiac) August 11, 2020
NCAA President Mark Emmert, however, seems to agree with the idea.
ESPN reported on August 10 that UConn head coach Geno Auriemma expected a delay in the start of the women’s basketball season. His team is back in the Big East this year, after a seven-year stint at the American Athletic Conference. Big East has yet to announce the delay of its women’s basketball season, but the situation could change at any time.