Today the Big West Conference announced its men’s and women’s basketball conference schedules for unique upcoming 2020-21 season. Each team from all 11 member schools are scheduled to play 20 conference games in a back-to-back format.
Long Beach State men’s basketball will open at UC Riverside, and the women’s team will host the Highlanders on Dec. 27 and 28.
Instead of traveling for two games a week, or hosting two different teams in a week, the Big West schools will travel to and host the same school for consecutive games. The conference hopes this will cut down on travel and the possibility of transmitting COVID-19. Most of the games will be on Friday and Saturday, and the Big West says that no games will not be rescheduled if any team needs to quarantine during the season.
There will be no spectators allowed when the season starts, but the conference said it will revisit that as the season progresses.
“The Big West Board of Directors did due diligence in examining all of the factors involved in a safe and responsible return to competition, with basketball being the pilot moving forward,” said Big West Commissioner Dan Butterly in an official statement. “The Big West Conference understands the need for consistent and multi-layered levels of testing protocols that put safety at the forefront for our member institutions. Cognizant of state and county restrictions, and the NCAA Core Principles of Resocialization of Collegiate Basketball, we feel we have a plan in place that will adhere to those mandates.”
The 2021 Big West Basketball Tournament is slated to run from Wednesday, March 10 to Saturday, March 13 at Honda Center in Anaheim with the regular eight men’s and eight women’s teams competing.
November 25 is the official start date for the 2020-21 NCAA basketball season. Long Beach State expects to release its full schedule by the end of the week.
