The 2020-21 men’s and women’s college basketball seasons can start Nov. 25, the NCAA Division I Council said Wednesday.
The council, following its vote, said no exhibition games or scrimmages can be held before that date, which is the day before Thanksgiving.
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.”
The past couple of weeks, discussions centered on waiting until Nov. 21-25 to begin the season. Gavitt said last week on a webinar with athletic directors and other college sports officials that Nov. 25 was under consideration because campuses around the country would be ending their fall semesters then.
“By Thanksgiving week, the date of Nov. 25, 76% of all Division I schools will have either finished their fall semester completely or released the general student body for in-person instruction,” Gavitt said on the webinar.
With general students home for the month of December and the early part of January, there is at least a six-week window for the college basketball season to get underway.