Big news came down on Wednesday as the NCAA announced a return to play plan for college basketball. This was exciting for programs and fans alike as basketball commissioner Dan Gavitt announced college hoops will be allowed to begin on November 25.
For Florida, the schedule up until that point will look like this. The team will be doing 12-hour practice weeks up until October 14th when they will then be able to jump up to 20-hour practice weeks leading up to the November 25th starting date. No exhibition or secret scrimmages will take place this year.
Here is the most important stuff–the number of games, and who the Gators could play.
The NCAA is allowing teams to play up to 27 games, a number that will bring some level of normalcy to the basketball season. Non-conference games will not only be allowed, but encouraged as the NCAA is requesting each team to play at least four out-of-conference games. This is to help with seeding for the NCAA Tournament, something that Dan Gavitt reiterated would absolutely be happening.
Because of the non-conference request we won’t be seeing the Gators play an exclusively SEC schedule, something that was looking like a possibility for some time. In terms of who they’ll play outside of the SEC…that’s tough to say.
It’s entirely likely that the schedule they have laid out won’t happen as currently written. UConn was supposed to head to Gainesville for a return game from when Florida was there last season, but almost certainly the Huskies wouldn’t want to make the trip across the country. Florida State and North Florida are in-state games the Gators have lined up and it makes sense those contests will happen, and it will be interesting to see if Florida tries to line up some other games with schools within the state. Given the climate it’s extremely fortunate that the Gators play in a state rich with basketball talent and games with UCF, South Florida, or Miami would be convenient games to add to the slate.
Non-conference tournaments (or “Multi Team Events” as the NCAA technically calls them) are still technically in play and the Gators were slated to play in a good one called the Emerald Coast Classic. However, that one could be on shaky ground. The teams joining Florida in Niceville, Florida were Illinois, Iowa State, and Oregon, and it’s possible those teams won’t want to travel the miles required to play in this event. While that could be the case, these tournaments are a chance to set up safe environments (one could go as far as calling it a “bubble”) and it could be worth it for teams to travel if they’re going to get in two high major out of conference games.
Not to jinx anything by mentioning this, but in the event of an outbreak within the team it’s worth noting that to be eligible to compete in the NCAA Tournament a team will need to play in at least 13 games. Hopefully that isn’t a number that needs to come into play for any team in the country, but it’s a note that has to be made when talking about college basketball this season.
The Gators are going to be a much more veteran team than past seasons, something that could really benefit them in these rather bizarre times. They return three starters, all their key bench pieces, and add two 4th-year players to the active roster with Tyree Appleby and Anthony Duruji becoming eligible. The familiarity the Gators should have with each other versus some other SEC teams that will be trying to get a lot of new pieces to gel could be a big advantage, especially because teams probably won’t be playing the cupcake non-conference games each team usually schedules a few of. SEC and other high major programs are likely going to be a bit less likely to schedule teams from smaller conferences that don’t have the same resources to test regularly due to safety concerns, and that could mean the Gators play a lot of tough games this season.
We still don’t know what Florida’s schedule is going to look like exactly but with college basketball opening up November 25th the Gators will be tipping off either that day or in the few days that follow.