Basketball: NCAA moves Midnight Madness up to September

Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports, May 3, 2013

College basketball’s offseason just got two weeks shorter.

The NCAA announced Friday afternoon that a proposal for men’s teams to start practicing six weeks before their first regular-season games has been approved and will take effect this fall. The proposal was finalized at the end of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors meeting Thursday.

In the past, men’s basketball teams were allotted 30 days of practice in the four weeks before their first games. Spreading 30 days of practice over an expanded time frame of 42 days allows for more flexibility in preseason practice schedules, and it also allows for teams’ first practices to be on a Friday, meaning that Midnight Madness season tip-off events can take place on weekends.

The NCAA also eliminated the requirement that teams’ first practice begins no earlier than 5 p.m. This opens up the possibility of events actually occurring — as their names would indicate — at midnight, as they have in the past on the first day of the season.

The 2013-14 season opens on Nov. 8, so that means teams will be allowed to begin practicing on Sept. 27.

A potential side effect of a longer preseason practice period could be improved quality of play in early-season games. Considering that scoring in Division I men’s basketball was at a historic low point last season, this is welcome news.

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