College basketball officials considering four different start dates for season, per report

There are multiple meetings set to take place this week between NCAA officials, and the college basketball season schedule is on the docket. According to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, the NCAA is looking at four start dates to the season: Nov. 10 (that’s the normal start date), Nov. 20, Nov. 25, and Dec. 4.

They are expected to decide on a plan by the first week of September, which would then be voted on by the Division-I Council on Sept. 16. That would provide a decent amount of lead time for schools, which is going to be needed as everybody tries to sort out their non-conference scheduling situation.

Not everybody is likely to play a non-conference slate: the Pac-12, for example, has postponed all sports until at least Jan. 1. Right now, that’s a unique case, but it may be that most major-conference schools plan on truncated schedules. A lot of schools haven’t finalized their schedules at this point, either.

A start date around Thanksgiving or later seems to make the most practical sense, because that’s when the regular student population will head home for winter break (if they haven’t already been sent home).

Assuming the majority of places are online-only by late this semester, it feels like college hoops has a decent chance of working. Fingers crossed.