The State of University of Maine Athletics, with Ken Ralph

While no sports will be played this fall at the state's lone D-I school, we now have an idea of when athletics may start again for the Black Bears.

In the past week, the NCAA has set the start date for men's and women's basketball as November 25th. While there are still many hurdles to clear, such as travel restrictions, to meet that date, it has at least provided guidance to a situation that has remained up in the air until this point.

The NCAA also established parameters for what spring football will look like at the FCS level. The University of Maine, and any other FCS program that will play football in the spring of 2021, can play up to eight games during a 13-week period leading up to April 18. A playoff will follow the regular season, but the field will be reduced from 24-to-16 teams, with the National Championship Game tentatively scheduled for May 14-16.

It remains up to each individual school to figure out when they want to begin practices and games.

As for hockey, there has been no word since the delay of the season as to when the Black Bears may hit the ice.

As one could assume, we had many questions for UMaine AD Ken Ralph when he made his appearance Friday on The Drive. You can catch Ken's full thoughts, below -