NCAA sets Nov. 25 start date for college basketball

The 2020 college basketball season will start 15 days late to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19

Eric Boose / Sports Editor

The 2020 college basketball season officially has a start date. Division I men’s and women’s basketball teams are allowed to play their first games on Nov. 25, the National Collegiate Athletics Association announced on Wednesday. Teams will be permitted to start holding full practices as early as Oct. 14.

“The new season start date near the Thanksgiving holiday provides the optimal opportunity to successfully launch the basketball season,” NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt said. “It is a grand compromise of sorts and a unified approach that focuses on the health and safety of student athletes competing towards the 2021 Division I basketball championships.”

Teams were originally permitted to play their first game 15 days earlier, on Nov. 10, but the start date was pushed back in order to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus. By Nov. 25, three quarters of all Division I universities will have either completed their fall semester or have “moved remaining instruction and exams online,” according to the NCAA. The hope is that the largely empty campuses will cut down on the transmission of COVID-19 among student athletes and a university’s student body as a whole.

The later start to the season comes with a slight reduction in schedule length, with teams being permitted to play four fewer games than normal. Instead of the usual 28, men’s basketball teams can now play up to 24 regular season games if they compete in a pre-season tournament and 25 (normally 29) if they do not. Women’s teams can play 23 games and a pre-season tournament or 25 games if they do not. Teams also now only have to play 13 games against Division I opponents to be eligible to compete in a national post-season tournament, half of the usual number.