Why is Late Night with Roy so early this season?

When people learn the first official basketball practice – at UNC known as Late Night with Roy – is the earliest it has ever been, they ask how come? It is usually in October, if not as late as that sacred date of October 15, but certainly in October. Right?

Well, not so fast. Yes, holding Late Night with Roy the Friday night before the football game with Clemson makes for a fabulous recruiting weekend for both sports, and any other coaches who want to invite prospects to Chapel Hill. But did the NCAA grant Carolina some special dispensation to move it up to this weekend.

Yeah, right, the NCAA would happily oblige Bubba Cunningham if he asked. It’s right there in the NCAA rules, if you can understand what those rules say.

So let’s give it a try with the rule that starts off pretty clear by saying: The 2019–20 NCAA Division I men’s basketball season will begin on November 5, 2019.

That makes sense, Carolina’s opener is November 6 vs. Notre Dame. And then it says: Practices will officially begin in late September. Okay got it. But why has it been pushed up so far, if not to accommodate Late Night with Roy and the Clemson game?

I kid you not, Under By Law 17, the rules states:

In determining the first permissible preseason practice date, an institution shall count back from its first scheduled contest, one unit for each day beginning with the opening of classes, one unit for each day classes are not in session in the week of the first scheduled intercollegiate contest and two units for each other day in the preseason practice period, except that the institution shall not count any units during the preseason when all institutional dormitories are closed, the institution’s team must leave campus, and practice is not conducted.

So what is a unit anyway? Oh, and then it says Sundays are excluded from the counting.

Followed by:

The opening day of classes is defined as the first day of classes as listed in the member institution’s official catalog. Required freshman orientation is not considered to be the opening day of classes for the academic year. . . The first day of practice may be conducted on the day when the last practice unit occurs, which is determined by counting backward from the day of the first permissible regularly scheduled contest.

Huh? Well, guess it’s okay, then. See you at Late Night!

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