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With the success achieved so far in the NBA bubble, could college basketball bubbles be far behind?
The Big East Conference – which has no football and postponed all bankruptcy sports on Wednesday – is one of several leagues considering setting bubbles for their men’s and women’s basketball seasons, multiple sources said.
“We are considering it along with various schedule alternatives,” said one Big East source.
Possible locations include the CHI Health Center Arena in Omaha, Neb. – Creighton’s home website – and IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., Where the WNBA is currently playing in a bubble. Additional locations are also being considered, the source said. It remains unclear if basketball for men and women in the Great East would be in the same as different bubbles.
It is also unclear when conference games would be played in the bubbles and how they would work in relation to school calendars. The college basketball season is set to begin Nov. 10. Last year, the 90-day Big East conference schedule began Dec. 30. 30. The league’s main TV partner, Fox, should also be consulted, but a Fox source said there have been no talks so far.
The Big East is also not the only league to reach out to officials at IMG.
“Several leagues have been reached due to the fact that we can manage the WNBA bubble,” an IMG source said Wednesday by phone, deciding to name which other leagues were reached.
“We had to build a bubble, a dome, where we have to place three temporary courts,” the source added. ‘And we had placed companies. And the day they were here, they had called themselves like four conferences to get six floors and try to create bubbly atmosphere. And the Great East was one of those conferences called then, and I know Omaha is one of the sites they talk about for a possible bubble. “
The Big East was the last league to cancel the game due to the pandemic – stopping the St. John’s / Creighton’s Big East Tournament quarterfinals at halftime on March 12 – and got a lot of backlog at the time. The league numbers need to think and be careful when making their next move for the 2020-21 season.
“It’s very conceptual and just an exercise in assessing practicality for further consideration,” said one athlete director Big East of the bubble idea.
The NBA bubble has so far proven to be the best mechanism for playing basketball, and the Big East has clearly noticed.
Of the 342 players who have been testing for COVID-19 on the NBA campus since test results were last announced on August 5, zero confirmed positive tests have returned.
Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard is among those who have advocated a 26-game league schedule in a bubble environment.
“Every school said after Thanksgiving that there will be no one on campus, so why should we not benefit from no one on campus?” Willard told the New York Post last month in suggestion of individual bubbles on campus. ‘It’s almost like being in a bubble and having almost no interaction with any of the students. It’s probably the safest time to play.
“Sitting back and waiting for flu season and waiting for kids to come back on campus is idiotic.”
After first announcing that it would only play conference games in the fall, the Big East announced on Wednesday the postponement of fall sports, which seems to put the basketball season for non-conference at great risk. The league’s official position is that “plans for basketball for men and women and other sports are not currently affected,” Commissioner Val Ackerman said in a statement.
“The decision not to hold a bankruptcy sports competition was not made clear,” said Chairman of the Big East Board of Directors and Villanova University President Reverend Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD. “Athletics plays an integral role in the student, alumni and fan experience at each of our institutions, and we all hoped to advance the fall seasons. Like the guidance of the Big East COVID-19 Task Force, this decision, although disappointing, was made with the health and safety of our student-athletes and staff in mind. The well-being of our community members is and will continue to be our priority and focus. ”
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