Alabama Basketball: Conferences plan to get staging games and safety right

Alabama Basketball: There are reasons basketball plans can work better than football

Alabama basketball fans are hoping national administrators, coaches and school and conference administrators can plan better than football. The biggest problem for college football is lack of centralized control. Though needed, college football has no Czar to guide and direct it through the COVID mess.

College basketball is different. It too has no Czar but the NCAA does have a big stick. The NCAA owns the rights to March Madness. Prior to the Big Dance, NCAA control of basketball is almost as limited as its control over FBS football. The limit of NCAA control changes at the end of conference tournaments.

Thinking a group of powerful basketball programs could break away from the NCAA and stage a separate national championship tournament is fallacious. For one thing, there are three times more schools playing Division One basketball compared to FBS football. More voices and different motivations can damage consensus building. A bigger reason comes down to money. The NCAA makes big bucks off of March Madness. A timid NCAA in other ways would be a tiger fighting to maintain its massive stream of cash. In fairness to the much-maligned NCAA, cancellation of last season’s March Madness cost many schools big dollars as well.

What conferences will do in the college basketball regular season is not yet known. There has been nothing definitive about Alabama basketball and the SEC. So far, only the Pac 12 has made any decisions about basketball. No PAC team will be allowed to play before January. In the interim, the league is working hard to develop effective plans.

Other leagues, having shutdown fall football (Big Ten and Big East) have not yet delayed basketball. With basketball being a winter, rather than fall sport, perhaps other leagues are content not rushing any decisions.

According to the Denver Post, the PAC is being more proactive than reactive.

"Since late April, a working group consisting of 24 coaches, athletic directors, basketball administrators and other officials — two from each school — has convened every other week to plot a strategy for the restart."

Once play begins, one change the league is considering is creating pod locations where four teams would play weekend games at one location. The pod premise is reducting travel risks and sequestering players and staff in tightly controlled areas. Such a ‘bubble’ was proven successful by the NBA.

Bubble success is what the NCAA is counting on for March Madness. Mark Emmert is on record stating a 32-team, bubble controlled, NCAA Tournament is “manageable.”

"If we modify the model, shrink bracket sizes, do everything in pre-determined sites, instead of running kids around the country … move toward bubbles or semi-bubble models. There’s a way to do it. Will it be normal? Of course not. Will it create other conflicts and challenges? Of course. But is it doable? Yeah."

Should Alabama basketball fans be discouraged or worried? When it comes to the Crimson Tide participating in the  ‘Big Dance,’ we should always be worried.

Given the ‘in-ur-face’ nature of basketball and players and officials all touching a ball that cannot be cleaned between plays, there are unique COVID risks. Rapid-result, saliva tests might also be an essential requirement.