SI Report: NCAA Considering Starting Basketball Season Early
The NCAA is strongly considering a drastic shakeup to the college basketball calendar, as first reported by Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde.
NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt told Forde recently that he has propositioned high-ranking officials within several conferences to potentially move the start date of the college basketball season forward about two weeks.
In theory, the goal is to get the basketball calendar to more closely align with the fluid and often changing academic calendars from around the nation.
Many schools, Ole Miss included, have altered their academic calendars to have the fall semester end around the Thanksgiving break. The goal here is to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19 that could occur by sending students home for Thanksgiving and then bringing them back to campus' for final exams.
The theory, which The Grove Report floated around when Ole Miss announced their altered academic calendar, would theoretically allow basketball teams to get in more of those non-conference games before schools would shut down in December.
“At this point it’s just a concept,” Gavitt said. “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.”
Gavitt added that it is "almost a certainty" that some basketball games scheduled in the December window, post campus shutdowns, will have to be rescheduled or cancelled altogether. Moving the season up two weeks would eliminate a part of that concern.
For Ole Miss, the men are currently scheduled to open the season on Nov. 10 vs New Orleans at home. This proposition would move that home opener to Oct. 27 and all other games up theoretically two weeks.
As Gavitt emphasized, this is just a concept. But as we've seen over the prior three months in sport, anything is possible. Concept very well could breed reality.
More from The Grove Report:
Sports Illustrated's 2020 Preseason All-SEC Team
Grae Kessinger Coping with Lost Season, Taking Development into His Own Hands
Ole Miss DC D.J. Durkin Explains How to Return Rebels to SEC's Elite
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