As the Big Ten weighs the possibility of starting its college football season around Thanksgiving, the NCAA is considering the same for the college basketball season as a whole.
As first reported by CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein on Tuesday, the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Oversight Committee plans to propose a Nov. 25 start date for the 2020-21 college basketball season. The Athletic's Dana O'Neil, who confirmed Rothstein's report Wednesday, added that the Division I Council will vote to approve that start date on Sept. 16.
Starting the season on Nov. 25 – one day before Thanksgiving – would be just a brief delay from when the season was originally scheduled to open. Ohio State was initially set to open its season on Nov. 11 against Oakland at the Schottenstein Center.
Holtmann tweeted Wednesday that his players are “ecstatic” about the possibility of starting the season in late November, also including in his tweet that he hopes college football and other fall sports will be able to resume soon, too.
A potential late Nov start in College Basketball sounds great. Mentioned it to our guys and they were ecstatic.
— Chris Holtmann (@ChrisHoltmann) September 2, 2020
Hope and purpose are powerful forces.
Cant wait for the soon and safe return of college sports for Football and all fall/winter athletes.
Whether the season will actually start as proposed remains uncertain, of course, given that the Big Ten postponed its fall sports season just six days after releasing a modified conference-only schedule that was set to begin this week. Because the NCAA actually operates the national championship tournament for college basketball, though, it will have a greater say in when teams actually start the season, increasing the likelihood that Ohio State and the Big Ten play in the same timeframe as everyone else.
Should the college basketball season start in November and end in March/April per usual, it's possible the Big Ten football and basketball seasons could unfold simultaneously from start to finish, as it's likely the proposed November Big Ten football model would start within days of the basketball season and also end in March.
