We're a week into the college basketball season and already it's upsets galore. No. 15 Arizona lost to Virginia in its season opener. Bradley beat a DePaul team many had pegged for the NCAA tournament - by 20. And on Monday, No. 14 Boston College fell to Vermont, and No. 17 Marquette needed overtime to beat Idaho State.

George Mason made it clear last March that the gap is closing between major-conference powers and all the rest, but the slew of early upsets this year is attributable to something else. This college basketball season tipped off two weeks earlier than in past years. That means less prep time for coaches and less mesh time for some of the game's top young talent.

"I'm really disappointed in how unfair I think that is," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "They better either not let us play that early or start letting us practice earlier cause that isn't fair. That's been hard on me and hard on them and in all honesty not fair to the players."

Izzo has been one of the more outspoken critics of the new, longer season, and his team - with four new starters and a starting lineup that features three sophomores and a freshman - is 3-0.

Eventually, things will balance out. Arizona is still a Final Four-caliber team, one whose two best players may be true freshman Chase Budinger and sophomore Marcus Williams. Boston College will learn to make do without Craig Smith. And Bradley will give a few more major-conference teams fits.

But the NCAA would be wise to listen to Izzo and other coaches, who are hamstrung by an outdated calendar that tried squeezing two exhibition games into three weeks of practice before last Friday's official start to the season.