Piedmont's setup for this weekend's basketball games follows the seating plan that the NBA used in Orlando. Piedmont athletics photo

By Gordon Mann
D3hoops.com

This week is normally very busy and very exciting for the Division III sports community. 

Division III football is normally in its home stretch with teams locking up bids to the 32-team playoff tournament. Other fall sports are normally headed into conference tournaments to determine their playoff field. And the impending start of Division III basketball normally creates the hectic period known to coaches, athletes and administrators as "crossover season."

Of course, nothing about 2020 has been normal and there's very little excitement for the Division III basketball season that theoretically begins this weekend. 

With the rise in coronavirus cases and corresponding health and safety restrictions, the potential for even an abbreviated Division III basketball season feels like it's slipping away rapidly.

• D3sports: Smaller playoff brackets announced for winter, spring sports
• D3football: Four Midwest teams take the field

The NESCAC was the first conference to announce that it will not have conference play in any winter sports. Individual programs theoretically could attempt to play a shortened season on their own, but a few programs quickly announced they will not try. It's hard to envision a situation in which these schools could play when they are still trying to determine whether all of their students can safely return to campus after the holiday break.

If you're not familiar with Division III women's basketball, a season without the NESCAC would be like a Division I college football season without the SEC. The NESCAC has produced the No. 1 ranked women's team nearly every week for the last four seasons. Even when the NESCAC doesn't produce the national champion, it produces at least one (and frequently more) Final Four participants. The conference is also one of the best in Division III men's basketball.

The NCAC and UAA made similar announcements in October, cancelling conference play while leaving the door open for individual schools to play non-conference games. Again, a few members already announced they won't. This week the GNAC and NEWMAC did the same. The SUNYAC went a step further and canceled winter sports completely. Outside of these conference announcements, individual schools have made their own stating they won't play this winter. That includes the Swarthmore men, who finished last season ranked No. 1.

So will anyone play this season?

If you're an optimist, then maybe the spread of the virus slows enough that all student athletes can safely return to campus in the New Year,  and then begin practicing together in something that resembles competitive basketball. Maybe COVID-19 testing becomes available and affordable enough that schools are able to follow the NCAA's health and safety guidelines that schools test athletes three times a week on non-consecutive days. Maybe enough teams can take the court for enough games that we get some kind of Tournament in March, even if it's with a smaller field and fewer games. 

And if you're not an optimist, that last paragraph sounds farfetched.

That said, some schools will likely play some games. Those that played limited schedules in fall sports -- Trine, Adrian, Bluffton, Manchester -- are planning to play each other this month. They may find some takers in Division II and NAIA given the challenges of scheduling at that level.

There's a pretty good tip-off tournament in women's basketball scheduled for this weekend where Piedmont hosts Transylvania and East Texas Baptist. But there's no certainty that any game scheduled can or will actually be played. Many have already been marked postponed or cancelled on our scoreboard. 

Speaking of our scoreboard, we're in a strange place regarding our coverage for whomever does take the court.

Normally we create individual pages for every conference, men and women, and every team, men and women. Then we enter the schedules for a large number of programs that aren't part of the Presto network. That's a lot of pages to create but it gives us a comprehensive look at the 900-or-so Division III basketball programs.

We've already created the conference pages for the 2020-21 season, even for conferences that canceled their season. We're doing the same for the individual team pages, even though many won't play a single game. 

We're not entering every game on every schedule because many games won't be played. Some schools released their schedules months ago and have since marked games postponed or cancelled. Others haven't updated their schedule but it's obvious their games won't happen because of state or local health restrictions. And still others haven't released any schedule at all. That's probably the most accurate description of our state of affairs.

If you know of a team that is playing games and doesn't have their games listed on our scoreboard, please let us know by emailing me at gordon.mann@d3sports.com.

We will still strive to be comprehensive even if that feels like shooting in the dark at a target that gets smaller every week.