I am guessing the plan being discussed is to do away with OOC games and only play conference games, where everyone has the same testing and precautions in place. Only need to start the season in January if that is the case.
There might also be concern about starting the schedule in early November, when the students are still on campus and things are getting colder. That might be a peak time for COVID on college campuses.
Gonna to guess there is a school of thought that they should at least wait until after classes end for the fall semester, just before Thanksgiving, before starting to play games. As far as I know, all ACC schools are playing to end in person classes before Thanksgiving.
If they are going to have OOC games before Thanksgiving, we are probably looking at mini bubbles, maybe played at casinos.
I think there is a very real chance most or all campuses will do away with in person classes for the spring semester. Just my opinion...I am expecting COVID to spike up when it starts getting colder.
When socializing outside gets harder in much of the U.S., daily life will get more dismal, and the virus might spread even further.
www.theatlantic.com
If the regular students are sent home, it should reduce the chances the players who remain on campus will get COVID significantly.