As preparations begin for potential winter sports, the NCAA continues to discuss a number of options for the start of the basketball season.

On Thursday evening, Matt Norlander of CBS Sports obtained a timeline sent by the NCAA to conference commissioners. In the document were four potential start dates to the 2020-21 men’s and women’s basketball season: the current plan (Nov. 10), Nov. 20, Nov. 25, and Dec.4.

“Sources told CBS Sports the NCAA's men's basketball oversight committee and the men's basketball selection committee are held separate meetings Wednesday to discuss these potential start dates, among other action items,” Norlander wrote.

Conference commissioners and coaches are also meeting weekly to discuss the potential plans, with hope that a firm decision can begin to be form in September.

Earlier this month the NCAA’s Senior Vice President of Basketball, Dan Gavitt, said that by “mid-September” the NCAA will give direction on a season start date or a “short-term delay.”

“One source joked that putting a 1% chance on the season starting on Nov. 10 ‘may be high,’” Norlander wrote.

There is growing support of the Nov. 25 and Dec. 4 start dates, according to CBS Sports. The late November timeframe holds support within the Big Ten- Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann told The Buckeye Show there was “a lot of momentum” for the post-Thanksgiving start.

“Using that window of Thanksgiving on to try to do competition, I think we would all love to see that as a possibility,” Holtmann said.

The sense that a season would start closer to the beginning of December is growing across the country, not just in the Big Ten.

In an interview with NCAA.com, Gavitt said a “bubble” setup similar to the path the NBA is taking is “just not a reality for college sports.” However, Gavitt and basketball committee head Mitch Barnhart did make it clear that a regionalized schedule for early-season play could be the best way to start a season.

“Clearly, once students have gone away from campus and they’re no longer around for classes, that is a unique opportunity to try to focus on the game of basketball,” Barnhart said to NCAA.com.

With reports of a post-Thanksgiving Big Ten football season being on the table, the similar start date to a basketball season would cause both TV scheduling issues and a division in fans’ attention.

No matter when the NCAA decides to begin a basketball season, it will cross paths with the football seasons of conferences that have postponed fall sports. The early days of college basketball are often overshadowed by late-season college football and the College Football Playoffs, so the adjustment would not be much different from a normal year.

The NCAA is also using the success of a fall football season as a marker for its basketball start date, Norlander said. If Power 5 conferences are able to play reasonably successful schedules this fall, basketball plans may shift closer to the previously held start date.

The main focus of the NCAA, though, is to hold its men’s basketball tournament as close as possible to the normal March time frame.

“One conference commissioner expressed high confidence that the NCAA would do anything and everything not only to hold the NCAA Tournament in 2021, but to also keep it at its usual size of 68 teams,” Norlander wrote.

In 2019, the NCAA reported $1.12 billion in revenue. $804 million, or around 71.8 percent of that money, came from a TV deal with CBS and Turner, the networks which broadcast the NCAA Tournament. Basketball is what keeps the NCAA running- it is imperative that the organization avoids cancelling its highest-drawing event for the second year in a row.

That being said, a Nov. 10 start date is looking less likely by the day as cases continue to rise on college campuses. In order to have a similar-looking tournament come spring, the NCAA cannot realistically wait for 2021 to start its largest winter sport.

With the support of coaches and an optimistic outlook from Gavitt, season openers for college basketball taking place near Thanksgiving seem to have the most life at this point to ensure an on-time NCAA Tournament.