NCAA Aims for Mid-September Regarding Contingency Plans for Basketball Season

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt released a statement Monday about the plans for announcing a start date for college basketball.

A few weeks ago, Gavitt said college basketball is still planning to start playing games on time, which would be Nov. 10.

Monday, Gavitt said they will make a statement in mid-September on whether the season will start on time, or if there will be an alternate plan instead.

It is well known that some conferences, including the Big Ten, have discussed potential plans to play college basketball in a bubble this season. But if the season were to start on Nov. 10, Indiana would open its season that day against NJIT in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Other conferences already have decided to slash into the basketball season, most notably the Pac-12, which pushed all sports back to Jan. 1 at the latest when they postponed the fall season. Others may follow at some point before mid-September.

Below is the full release from Gavitt:

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.