With Mississippi State football season nearing, when will basketball start? NCAA official weighs in
On the day the Southeastern Conference is set to unveil the full 2020 football schedule for Mississippi State and other SEC teams, one of the NCAA's top officials has weighed in on when important decisions will be made regarding basketball season. Here is the full statement released by NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt on Monday afternoonregarding the status of hoops in 2020-21, per NCAA.org:
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.
So it appears, given the timeline outlined by Gavitt, it'll be about another month before any kind of a decision is made on proceeding as normal or delaying things on the basketball front.
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