NCAA To Move Up College Basketball Start?

Dan Gavitt of the NCAA told Sports Illustrated this week that he is considering, and has told conference commissioners, moving up the start of the 2020-21 college basketball season by several weeks so they can get some games played in the event the coronavirus pandemic stops play at some point during the season.

COVID-19 stopped the 2019-20 season in its tracks on March 12th, canceling several conference tournaments and the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments for the first time ever.

Here's Gavitt's quote from the SI story:

"At this point it’s just a concept, but we have presented it to the conference commissioners and the oversight committees. The ball is in their court. It has some utility, adds some flexibility and options with the (academic) calendar changing, which could affect the break period.”

Schools like Michigan State and Michigan plan to have students on campus through the Thanksgiving break, and then finish the semester using online classes.  U-M President Mark Schlissel has said repeatedly that there would be no fall sports if there were no students on campus in the fall.