Could We See Basketball Season Start Earlier?

Could the start of the 2020-21 college basketball season start earlier than scheduled? It's possible.

STILLWATER -- Even though we're in the middle of a dead/summer period, there's still some college basketball news that's going on. For Oklahoma State, it's some recruiting/offer news and some reports on measurement day.

But for college basketball as a whole, because of the coronavirus pandemic, it's news about the upcoming 2020-21 season.

In an article from SI's Pat Forde, the topic of starting the upcoming college basketball season two weeks early was brought up. It's an idea proposed to the conference commissioners and oversight committees by the NCAA. With that, the start of practices would also be moved up two weeks from the Sept. 29 start time.

“At this point it’s just a concept,” NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt told Sports Illustrated. “But we have presented it to the conference commissioners and the oversight committees. The ball is in their court. It has some utility, adds some flexibility and options with the (academic) calendar changing, which could affect the break period.”

Obviously, this idea is still in the infancy stage, but it's certainly an interesting proposal. I don't believe there's a doubt most of the 2020-21 sports seasons will be impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but the question will be how much and to what extent are things affected.

This was an interesting paragraph from Forde that included some information from Gavitt.

"With dozens of schools shutting down campus between Thanksgiving and the start of second-semester courses in January, Gavitt said it is “almost a certainty” that some basketball games scheduled for that window will be canceled. The optics of leaving winter sports teams on campus for six weeks or more while their fellow students are home is an issue, and there are concerns about traveling for several non-conference games during that time. That could result in schools sending their basketball teams home during the break as well, possibly eliminating anywhere from eight to 12 games and truncating the season."

The idea being that teams will play up to four games between the new proposed start of Oct. 27 and Nov. 10. According to Forde, high-profile games that are slated to take place after Thanksgiving, would be moved up during the new two-week window. There's also the possibility we could see schedules changed in order for teams to play more local opponents to reduce travel and expenses.

“A little more time, rather than less time, makes sense to me,” Gavitt said. “It would be permissive; no one is saying you have to do it. It would be up to the individual institutions or conferences to figure out how to do it.”

Gavitt also told Sports Illustrated that he's been getting a "wait-and-see" response from most conference leaders, and that's to be expected. As with everything regarding the pandemic, everything is very fluid. Obviously, whatever happens in regards to football will directly impact the college basketball season.

We're still a little less than two months from the start of football season, so as the weeks progress, this will be an interesting topic to keep a close eye on.