Thanksgiving Eve: A New College Basketball Tradition
The day before Thanksgiving is usually a day full of food preparation, sleeping in weird places in a house full of family members, and staying up late trying to find the last corner of that 1,000-piece puzzle.
For all the negatives that have accompanied COVID-19, it may have delivered a golden opportunity for a new tradition.
What if Thanksgiving Eve became the annual tip-off for the college basketball season?
Over the course of the past several seasons, the tip-off for college basketball has crept earlier and earlier into the month of November:
2019-20 – November 5
2018-19 – November 6
2017-18 – November 10
2016-17 – November 11
2015-16 – November 13
2014-15 – November 14
For reference, the 2019 college football season’s first full Saturday was August 31 meaning that college basketball officially started just two months into the college football season.
Prior to COVID-19, the original start date for 2020-21 was supposed to be November 10. The Division I Council’s decision to start on Wednesday, November 25 provides several opportunities.
First, pushing the season back two weeks allows for more of the college football schedule to elapse prior to the start of college basketball.
Second, choosing November 25 (Wednesday) rather than the November 21 (Saturday) proposal moves the official start date away from a Saturday and the death grip the college football has on it.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, the starting day is the day prior to Thanksgiving. By Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, most schools are out and many employers have also started their Thanksgiving holiday.
What’s important about that?
With so many people already off work or out of school, Thanksgiving Eve is the perfect day to start college basketball. Games could begin at noon ET and run all day long. A few years ago, ESPN canceled their 24-hour college basketball kickoff marathon, but this could be a 12-hour version all leading up to Thanksgiving Day.
And while we’re at it, why not schedule some marquee games actually on Thanksgiving Day to compete with the traditional NFL Thanksgiving games. The NBA line-up on Christmas Day is always a huge draw, why could the same not be true for college basketball on Thanksgiving Day?
Additionally, cementing the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as the annual start date of college basketball would likely help solidify a stronger viewership prior to the turn of the New Year. So many people wait until the football season is over or until conference play starts or even until Selection Sunday to actually start paying attention to college basketball.
Part of the reason for the delayed viewership has to be the shifting target that is the beginning of the college basketball season. I can’t count the number of times I’m all in on the early season multi-team events (MTEs) and the high profile non-conference games and I’ll have someone ask me, “So when does college basketball start?” It makes me want to pull my hair out. But also, I get it, because college basketball doesn’t have an official starting date.
Until now.
2020 could be the start of a brand new tradition.
What if, just like what will happen in 2020, every college basketball season began on Thanksgiving Eve?
It works for other sporting events, why not college basketball? Watch…
When is the Indy 500? The Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.
When is the Master’s? The weekend after the Final Four.
Now that we’re all settled on a new date and a new tradition, it’s time to submit our proposal. Here goes:
Dear Dan Gavitt (NCAA Senior VP of College Basketball),
I have a proposal for you: Out of all the mess of COVID-19, there are certain to be several changes that provide opportunities for long-term shifts in the normal way of doing things. One such alteration could be a consistent annual start day to the college basketball season. Rather than pushing things to the very beginning of November, why not wait and start on Thanksgiving Eve every year? Why not allow college basketball to own that Wednesday (and maybe even take away some NFL eyeballs on Thanksgiving Day with some strategic marquee match-ups)?
The primacy of March Madness has already provided a closing bookend to the college basketball season. COVID-19 has handed you an annual opening bookend to pair with it.
Henceforth and forevermore, let’s make the day before Thanksgiving the official start of college basketball.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Isaac Schade
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