The 2020-21 college basketball season will start just over one month after the 2020 Big Ten football season.
On the same day the Big Ten approved an Oct. 23-24 start for football, the NCAA's Division I Council approved a Nov. 25 national start for college basketball season, according to multiple reports.
Per CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein, teams will be allowed to begin practice on Oct. 14, six weeks before the scheduled start of the season.
Unlike in college football, it's more likely that all conferences will begin their college basketball seasons at the same time, as the NCAA has national oversight over college basketball's championships. The Big Ten's announcement about football on Wednesday did not include any announcements about other sports, but the resumption of football likely gives the green-light for basketball to start with the rest of the nation, and the Big Ten said Wednesday that updates for other fall and winter sports “will be announced shortly.”
Ohio State's 2020-21 basketball schedule was originally set to begin on Nov. 11 with a home opener against Oakland. It's unclear how the non-conference schedule will be adjusted, though it has been reported that the Big Ten still seeks to play non-conference games this season, and Rothstein reported earlier this week that Ohio State will still participate in the Battle 4 Atlantis, though that will now take place in South Dakota on dates to be determined instead of its originally scheduled dates and location of Nov. 25-27 in the Bahamas.
