NCAA sets D1 basketball start date

Regular season to begin Nov. 25

Ivan Palacios | THE RIDER

The NCAA Division I Council met Sept. 16 and released the biggest news in the future of fall sports– basketball is set to begin play Nov. 25.

The season is now set to begin 15 days after its original start date of Nov. 10. The main factor in choosing to move the season back a couple of weeks was the NCAA’s intention to start the season after most Division I schools had either completed their fall term or moved the remainder of the semester online.

Delaying the season allowed schools to create a less populated environment for student athletes and coaches, reducing the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak to happen throughout campuses. 

“Some of the rationale behind it has a lot to do with the college campuses, just the way that institutions are built,” said Chasse Conque, vice president and director of Athletics at UTRGV. “Students on campus, that’s right there at the Thanksgiving break. So that’s Thanksgiving week with games starting on the 25th. So you’ll see, I think, a lot of campuses get a little bit quieter.

“As we talk about creating, which we already have in place,  a soft bubble for our student athletes, it’s just helpful in the mitigation process. Obviously, we’re excited and support it. You hate seeing any season get cut short. But it’s really a minimal impact and I think it’s a really good time for us.”

Along with the start date, changes were made to the number of games allowed, reducing the total number of games played by four in both men’s and women’s basketball. The NCAA offered a template on how to schedule games for the upcoming season and recommended that teams schedule a minimum of four non-conference games. 

With the WAC being a diverse conference with teams all over the country, the Vaqueros intend to play a nonconference schedule primarily against teams in the Texas region.

“We really want to stay close in the nonconference,” Men’s Head Basketball Coach Lew Hill said. “We wanna stay around in the Texas area so we could just be more on the bus. And then once we get into conference, we’ll be flying all over the place. So we want to stay as close as possible around here to just go to the game and get back home and try to stay as safe as possible. But we’re excited.”

The changes to the scheduling is good news for the inaugural South Padre Island Tournament, which was to be hosted by the UTRGV Women’s Basketball team later this year.  Scheduled originally to be a four-team tournament, UTRGV is looking at possibly expanding the competition to help accommodate other teams scheduling issues. 

“The original four teams that we had,  Weber State, North Texas, Prairie View A&M and ourselves, are all in. But with all this shuffling of the schedules, there may be an opportunity for us to add a couple of teams,” said Lane Lord, UTRGV Women’s Basketball head coach. “We may extend the tournament to another day, but we’ll see how that all unfolds in the next week.”

With a start date now on the table, teams have been allowed to begin practices as of Sept. 21. These practices are limited by the NCAA, allowing teams to participate in strength and conditioning activities, sport-related meetings and skill instruction for up to 12 hours a week, with an eight-hour limit on skill instruction. Players must also be allowed two days off per week during this period. 

Practice conditions are temporary and are a part of the transition period the NCAA implemented to allow players and coaches to prepare, both mentally and physically, for the upcoming season. The transition period is set to end Oct. 13. 

After the transition period, teams will be allowed to begin full practices Oct. 14 as they prepare for the start of the season. During this time frame, teams will be allowed to practice a maximum of 30 times, at a maximum of 20 hours per week, four hours per day. Teams must also allow players to have one day off a week. 

These conditions are similar to those of a normal offseason. For many, this will be the first time since their season was cut short in March that they will be able to step onto a court. 

“Six months ago today, we’re flying back from Vegas,” Lord said. “The men’s team didn’t even get to play their tournament. We left early. The rest is history. It’s been a tough time, it really has. Today’s announcement is just awesome. We’re so ecstatic.”

With a date for the start of the season, UTRGV Athletics is excited to finally be able to get the ball rolling with their athletes. 

“I’m very excited,” Hill said. “We’ve been waiting for this day for quite some time. It’s just exciting to know what you’re going to do. When you’re living in the unknown and not knowing, and not knowing when the season is going to start or how we’re going to play this season, it’s disheartening. But now knowing, we can smile a little bit and figure the rest of this schedule out. Let’s see if we can put some people in the stands and play some basketball.”