NCAA Basketball: 5 biggest offseason takeaways heading into 2020-21 season
By Ben Dickson
COVID-19 Schedule Effects
Being less than 40 days away from the start of the college basketball season and going online and not seeing a confirmed schedule is a strange sight. Programs across the nation have dealt with a ton of adversity trying to create their schedule.
Multiple-team events (MTEs) are a foundation of college basketball’s early-season slate. However, they will look extremely different this year. The Maui Jim Maui Invitational, which has been home to many big moments, has been moved from the iconic Lahaina Civic Center in Maui to Asheville, North Carolina.
The Battle 4 Atlantis, another “Feast Week” mainstay, has been canceled and moved to South Dakota with a revamped field. It also appears as if the Gavitt Games between the Big Ten and Big East will not be played as well.
Teams have also had to drop out of out-of-state non-conference games and events due to state rules mandating a quarantine upon return. This is just another of many factors negatively affecting future schedules.
Another crazy layer added, according to CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, is that teams can now play in multiple MTEs, and teams from the same conference can play in the same MTE. This is unheard of in NCAA Basketball and could result in some chaos.
Not everything that has happened has been so bad, though. The news came on October 19th that potential top-10 teams Iowa and Gonzaga will play a nationally televised game this December in South Dakota. Gonzaga will also be playing Baylor that month in Indianapolis. Schedules are as fluid as ever right now, and some elite teams are taking on the mindset that they will play anyone, anywhere.