The South Carolina basketball team learned of the start date of the SEC game.
Today, the Southeast Conference announced the planned date for the start of league games next season. The SEC game for 2020-21 will begin on December 29.
The conference is moving forward with a schedule of 18 games, which is no different than the number of competitions on a typical league plate. There will be two open dates throughout the SEC’s schedule, although one of those dates will be filled with the SEC / Big 12 Challenge showdown for ten teams in the league.
Earlier this month, the NCAA set the regular season start date for the competition outside the conference, which will be November 25th. Gamecocks were scheduled to participate in the Hall of Fame Classic starting on November 22 alongside TCU, California and Northwestern. It has not yet been determined whether the tournament will be postponed or canceled.
Below is a press release from Gamecock’s athletics department detailing the SEC announcement.
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – The Southeast Conference has set 29 and 30 December as the new start dates for the 2020-21 men’s basketball conference schedule, while the women’s basketball start date will remain on 31 December 2020, as previously scheduled , SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey announced Friday.
The SEC 2020-21 men’s basketball conference schedule will consist of 20 game dates that would accommodate an 18 game schedule with two open dates. Ten SEC schools will fill one of these open dates with the SEC / Big 12 Challenge in late January. The four teams not participating in the SEC / Big 12 Challenge will play league games that day.
The SEC 2020-21 women’s basketball conference schedule remains on 18 game dates that fit into a league schedule of 16 games.
Earlier this month, the NCAA Division I Council approved a November 25 start date for the 2020-21 men’s and women’s college basketball seasons, when the SEC will begin playing outside the conference. Teams can start pre-season training on Wednesday, October 14, and will have a window of 42 days to hold a maximum of 30 training sessions.
Continue to check GamecocksOnline.com and South Carolina men’s and women’s basketball social media accounts (@GamecockMBB, @GamecockWBB) for more information on Gamecocks’ 2020-21 seasons.
South Carolina is about to make a splash at the SEC this year, with the return of eight of its ten top scorers from last season. The team got a big boost when scorer AJ Lawson chose to resign from the NBA draft and return to school in his first year. Frank Martin will try to position the Gamecocks in the top half of the league for the fifth time in the past six seasons.
This announcement affects the women’s team as well, as Dawn Staley seeks to build a 32-1 regular season and the fifth SEC championship in the past six years.