The college basketball season officially tips today, marking the "earliest it's ever started," according to Doug Feinberg of the AP. A sport that used to "start official practice around Oct. 15 and have its first games at Thanksgiving is now beginning nearly three weeks sooner." There will be "almost 100 women's games and 150 for the men" today. With the Final Four taking place on April 5 and the title game on April 7, the season is "nearly 200 days long." The NCAA this year "moved up the start date a few days" to try and "create more buzz for the beginning of the season" by getting it away from weekend football games. NCAA VP/Men's Basketball Dan Gavitt said, "You start the season Friday and basically they are dark for two days until you start up again on Monday. Starting on Tuesday, we can hopefully get a few days before you get to the weekend where people talk about the season." Feinberg notes the only flaw in that this year is the new start date "falls on Election Day, which will dominate news cycles." Gavitt said that the NCAA "might look at that in the future" (AP, 11/6). In Providence, Kevin McNamara writes this is the "earliest tip-off in the sport's history, and in large swaths around the country this is a certifiable Holy Day of Hoop" (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, 11/6).
NO ESCAPING IT: The AP's John Marshall noted the pay-to-pay recruiting scandal dominated the offseason, including the trial that concluded last month, "darkening the cloud hanging over college basketball for a second straight season." Unless something "monumental arises from the investigation or the NCAA, don't expect too much to change." The NCAA has "created new rules based on recommendations by a commission headed by Condoleezza Rice in hopes of curtailing the pay-to-play practices, but may not punish any programs or coaches ensnared in the probe until after the final trial, which is scheduled for after the Final Four in Minneapolis" (AP, 11/2). YAHOO SPORTS' Pat Forde wrote as the season begins, schools are "playing a compliance four corners against NCAA rules and enforcement." The federal trials into corruption included "loads of evidence and testimony that painted a clear picture of rampant cheating within the sport." Yet the response within the game "hasn’t exactly been a rush to change, or to confront many of the allegations that surfaced in court last month." The response has been "stall ball." Instead of "spurring a housecleaning, the federal investigation has given everyone an excuse to do nothing until absolutely forced to. It’s all duck and cover, play the waiting game" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 11/5).
SAME OLD, SAME OLD: SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL's Michael Smith noted the recommendations from the NCAA’s Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Rice, "need more time to be implemented." Those measures include "permissible contact with agents and the ability for some athletes to return to school if they’re not drafted." Ongoing court cases also could "affect the NCAA’s collegiate model." The one-and-done rule, the "object of such contempt in college basketball, will be with us until at least 2022, if not longer." Those changes in the future eventually "might overhaul college basketball, but for now the game rolls into a new season fueled by the same cast of characters and blue-blood programs." The NCAA has a history of "creeping at an incremental pace and this will be no different." Pac-12 Networks analyst Mike Montgomery said, "There is a sense that nothing has really changed. It’s like pushing a boulder up a hill. It’s going to take time to see change" (SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/5 issue).
