Possibly along with the much-anticipated vote on when to start football season, the Pac-12 CEOs are expected to vote Thursday on whether or not to allow basketball teams to play along with the rest of Division I starting on Nov. 25.
The Pac-12 said last month all sports would be postponed until at least January but the NCAA said last week basketball season would start on Nov. 25.
That's put all Pac-12 schools in limbo as they don't know what to tell the multi-team events (MTEs) and nonconference opponents they are contracted to play.
"It’s hard for us to really move forward on anything," said Ryan Reynolds, UA's director of basketball operations. "Are we going to start on the 25th or on Jan. 1? Until that's official, it's really hard for us to do anything."
As of now, UA still has seven nonconference spots and two NIT Season Tip-Off games on its schedule from Nov. 25 on. But the NIT Season Tip-Off is expected to be moved to Orlando, and it isn't clear if the cost would be worth Arizona traveling that far for two games since MTEs typically don't pay schools much if anything on top of hotel rooms. (However, it is possible teams could play more games than just their MTE opponents in Orlando).
Another possibility is if the Western conferences all send teams in groups over December to Las Vegas, at which UA might be able to knock off three or four nonconference games at a time.
Or the Wildcats could keep their home nonconference games, provided testing is sufficient enough that even the opposing team could be adequately tested beforehand. It might be difficult for UA to back out of nonconference home games scheduled for later than Nov. 25, and those games typically pay a visiting team $90,000-$95,000.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few has told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that he expected the Dec. 5 UA-Gonzaga game will be moved to 2021-22, that would leave another spot open for UA to either play in a pod somewhere or to plug in another home nonconference game. UA's Dec. 12 game with Illinois is also very much up in the air.
Here's Arizona's original pre-New Year's schedule:
Nov. 10 NAU
Nov. 12 Northern Colorado
Nov. 16 Loyola Marymount
Nov. 20 Wyoming
Nov. 25 at NIT Season Tip-Off, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Nov. 27 at NIT Season Tip-Off, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Dec. 2 Colorado*
Dec. 5 at Gonzaga
Dec. 9 Bakersfield
Dec. 12 at Illinois
Dec. 16 Cal Baptist
Dec. 19 at Stanford*
Dec. 22 Montana
*Pac-12 game
