NCAA to announce college basketball decision by mid-September

It appears the public could learn the fate of the 2020-21 college basketball season within a month.

Via an official statement, NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said:

"As we prepare for the 2020-21 college basketball season, we have exercised patience and discipline in monitoring the effects of COVID-19 and making decisions regarding the season. We have learned a great deal over the course of the summer, and with health and safety being our priority, we have developed and studied contingency plans for alternatives to the scheduled Nov. 10 start date.

"In the coming weeks, the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Oversight Committees will take the lead with me in a collaborative process of finalizing any recommendations for consideration by the NCAA Division I Council for the start of the college basketball season. By mid-September, we will provide direction about whether the season and practice start on time or a short-term delay is necessitated by the ongoing pandemic.

"We recognize that we are living and operating in an uncertain time, and it is likely that mid-September will be just the first milestone for many important decisions pertaining to the regular season and the NCAA basketball championships. While circumstances may warrant flexibility resulting in a different and perhaps imperfect season, the ultimate goal is to safely provide student-athletes and teams with a great college basketball experience."

Last week, Gavitt explained that the NCAA is currently planning for March Madness basketball and a 2021 NCAA Tournament.

"I think it’s important to note we’re going to have all sorts of contingencies and plans if it’s necessitated. We’re just not in the position to be able to talk about those in the middle of August, because that’s not what our primary goal is," Gavitt said during a video shared on Twitter.

"But, at the appropriate time and place, if we need to adjust, we will. We'll be flexible. We'll be nimble. And we'll deliver what the country is desperately looking for again, and that's an incredible March Madness tournament in 2021."

The Pac-12 has postponed football and other fall sports due to the coronavirus pandemic. As part of that decision, basketball teams within that conference won't play until January 2021 at the earliest.

It's possible that more than a dozen teams could form a college basketball "bubble" for non-league games in December.