NCAA rules that college basketball can start on Nov. 25

As first reported by Jon Rothstein of College Hoops Today, the NCAA will begin the college basketball season on Nov. 25th, 2020.

According to Rothstein, who first obtained this information from an inside source, the decision was made on Wednesday by the Division 1 Council. They ruled on the Nov. 25th start time and have allowed practices to begin on Oct. 14th.

The timing works out for colleges in that Nov. 25th is around when Fall semesters will be ending. The University of Colorado, for example, will have mixed in-person and online classes up until Fall Break, after which all classes will be conducted fully online. Once classes go online, Winter Break will extend until Jan. 13th.

For the Buffs, they will begin practicing on Oct. 14th (or around that time), continue onto their season through Fall Break. After that, the athletes will presumably be on campus through December and January when the rest of students are back home.

There is a complication in that the Pac-12 has not yet announced any plans to resume before Jan. 1st, as they postponed all sports until after 2020. There is talk they will resume athletics when the Big Ten does. The Pac-12 announcing rapid-results COVID testing figures to speed things along and make everything safer.