NCAA Basketball: 5 biggest offseason takeaways heading into 2020-21 season
By Ben Dickson
An Individual Conference Issue?
Throughout the quarantine and extending into the fall, we saw conferences across college football play completely different schedules. The Big 12 started on Week 1. The SEC began playing in Week 4. The Big Ten and Pac-12 reversed their decisions to play in the spring and are starting in Weeks 8 and 10, respectively. Certain FCS conferences pushed their seasons to the spring, and it will be interesting to see whether or not they play at all.
College basketball may start to see a similar effect on its schedule. Forbes’ Adam Zagoria is reporting that the Ivy League‘s season may be in jeopardy. He notes in the article that there is “no chance” Harvard plays if they do not have students back in the spring. If a prestigious institution like Harvard officially does not play, it will be extremely interesting to see what type of ripple effect that could have on the rest of the nation.
The America East Conference has taken a unique perspective on how it is approaching conference play. The conference will play an 18-game conference schedule with teams playing the same opponent at one site on Saturday and Sunday. Its programs will play from mid-December through February, with open dates available for postponed games. It seems like an efficient method, and it will be interesting to see if other conferences, especially mid-major ones, follow suit.