Quote:To decompress the schedule and generate more excitement with the beginning of the basketball regular season, the Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee discussed a new start date for the sport.

The conversation, which took place Wednesday and Thursday in Indianapolis, centered on making the Tuesday before the second Friday in November as the season’s uniform start date. This would be three days earlier than the current start date.

Committee members also discussed standardizing the playing season to 21 weeks with a mandatory three- or four-day break for the student-athletes at some point during their school’s winter vacation period.

The men’s college basketball community has been discussing the possibility of establishing a uniform start date for the sport. Many believe it can create a less compressed schedule, particularly for nonconference games, which they believe would benefit student-athlete well-being by providing more time for rest and recovery.

A mid-week start date could also create additional attention and excitement at the beginning of the season.

The timing could have other benefits: In recent years, it has become part of the sport’s culture to hold regular-season openers with ties to U.S. military venues to honor and entertain current and past service members. The date currently being considered would ensure that Veterans Day would be included in the early part of the season annually.