From the PBC
AUGUSTA, GA – The Peach Belt Conference Board of Directors formally approved the final men's and women's basketball schedule on Tuesday. The 2020-21 season will begin on Wednesday, Jan. 6, and continue each Wednesday and Saturday through the regular-season finale on Saturday, Feb. 27.
"This schedule allows our student-athletes to have as much of a full-season experience as possible," said PBC commissioner David Brunk. "It was also designed so that, if necessary, teams can have room to maneuver should they have to and hopefully minimize the amount of games that could be lost for COVID-19 reasons."
The PBC is putting the final touches on its return-to-play protocols which establish testing requirements, facility and game operations and other concerns related to basketball, all keeping with the latest information from the NCAA Sport Science Institute, the CDC and all state and local health guidelines.
"We are committed to creating as safe an environment as we possibly can for our student-athletes," said Brunk. "The amount of information coming at us can be nearly overwhelming, but our athletic directors council and board of directors have been working extremely hard to make sure that everything we do for the upcoming season keeps health and safety our top priority."
Among the changes forthcoming for this season will be a reconfiguration of the court in regards to team benches and the scoring table to allow for more social distancing and more time between games to allow for cleaning and sanitizing.
The top four teams in the PBC standings will advance to the PBC Tournament. Following guidelines from the NCAA, the tournament format has changed. Each game will now be played at the home of the higher seed throughout. Specific dates for the PBC Tournament will be announced at a later date.
The PBC will hold a women's basketball preview day on Tuesday, Dec. 8, and a men's basketball preview day on Wednesday, Dec. 9. The preview days will incorporate at team-by-team look at the upcoming season and will culminate in the releases of the preseason All-Conference team and coaches' poll.