College Basketball Season to Start November 25th

The wait is finally over. College basketball fans found out this afternoon that the NCAA ruled to start the 2020-21 season on November 25th.

December 4th was the other start date that was being seriously considered. Now that the date has been set, college basketball teams from around the country can start finalizing their regular season schedules. Many Division 1 programs have been waiting for this decision for months since they might have had multiple games on their preliminary schedule that were supposed to be played prior to November 25th. Now, those games will need to be either rescheduled or canceled.

As Adrian Broaddus pointed out in his story from May, UTEP had discussions to play schools like Washington State, Texas A&M, and Houston. It will be interesting to see if any of these games are not played since the November 25th start date is much later than normal seasons. If any of those games are canceled or postponed, the Miners could always opt into a late November/early December tournament to replace any games lost. UTEP and NMSU were also scheduled to play their first Battle of I-10 at the Don Haskins Center on November 17th and that game date will now need to be rescheduled.

As for the UTEP women, they were supposed to begin their season at home on November 1st. That game and possibly others will also need to be rescheduled or postponed.