The 2013–14 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began in November with the 2K Sports Classic and ended with the Final Four in Arlington, Texas April 5–7. It was tipped off by the 2013 Champions Classic on November 12, 2013.

• June 11 – The NCAA releases its annual Academic Progress Rate report. Three Division I men's basketball programs will be ineligible for postseason play in 2013–14; three others are ineligible pending appeals and NCAA review of data. The penalized programs are:^[1]
  • Arkansas–Pine Bluff (pending review)
  • FIU
  • Grambling State
  • Mississippi Valley State (pending review)
  • New Orleans
  • Southern (pending review)
• November 4 – The Associated Press preseason All-America team is released. Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart was the only unanimous choice, gaining all 65 votes. He was joined by Doug McDermott of Creighton (63 votes), Louisville guard Russ Smith (52), Kansas freshman Andrew Wiggins (42) and Michigan forward Mitch McGary (34).^[2]
• November 12 – Freshmen and transfers are eligible for the preseason Wooden Award watch list for the first time in the trophy's history. Nine freshmen made the 50-member list, including three each from Kentucky (Andrew Harrison, Julius Randle and James Young) and Kansas (Andrew Wiggins, Wayne Selden, Jr. and Joel Embiid). Jabari Parker of Duke, Aaron Gordon of Arizona and Noah Vonleh of Indiana were the other three freshmen named.^[3]
• February 27 – Shortly after the end of Utah Valley's 66–61 home win over New Mexico State in a battle between the WAC co-leaders, NMSU guard K.C. Ross-Miller throws a basketball at Utah Valley's Holton Hunsaker (son of UVU head coach Dick Hunsaker), hitting him in the leg.^[4] The incident triggers a brawl between players and fans who had stormed the court,^[4] with video later showing that at least one NMSU player threw a punch, and another had to be forcibly pulled from the melee by staff.^[5] The next day, the WAC suspends two NMSU players—Ross-Miller for two games and Renaldo Dixon for one—for their involvement in the brawl.^[5] In addition, UVU announces that it was reviewing tapes of the incident to determine whether to take further action against its own students and fans who were involved.^[5]
• March 26 – South Florida, which had reached an agreement in principle with Manhattan coach Steve Masiello to fill that school's head coaching vacancy, rescinds the agreement after it discovers that Masiello lied on his résumé about graduating from the University of Kentucky. A UK spokesperson confirmed that Masiello attended for four years but did not receive a degree.^[6]
• April 7 – Manhattan announces that it will retain Masiello as head coach, contingent on him earning his bachelor's degree from UK. At the time, he was about 10 credit hours short of a degree, and was expected to complete the needed courses during the summer term.^[7] UK announced on May 29 that Masiello had completed the required coursework and would receive his degree in August.^[8]
• April 9 – UMass sophomore guard Derrick Gordon becomes the first active Division I men's college player to come out as gay.^[9]

The 2013–14 season saw the largest wave of membership changes resulting from a major realignment of NCAA Division I conferences. The cycle began in 2010 with the Big Ten and the then-Pac-10 publicly announcing their intentions to expand. The fallout from these conferences' moves later affected a majority of D-I conferences. The most significant developments this season were:

• The original Big East Conference split into football-sponsoring and non-football conferences. The non-football league now operates as the newly chartered Big East Conference, while the football-sponsoring league operates under the old charter as the renamed American Athletic Conference (The American).
• With The American adding four members in 2013 and three more in 2014, all from Conference USA (C-USA), the latter league responded by adding eight members in 2013, plus one more in 2014. Four of the 2013 C-USA arrivals came from the Sun Belt Conference, which itself added three schools in 2013 and two more in 2014.
• The Western Athletic Conference saw near-total replacement of its membership. Only three schools that had been members in the 2012–13 season—Idaho, New Mexico State, and Seattle—remained in the WAC for 2013–14, and Idaho left for the Big Sky Conference after this season. The WAC's attempts to replenish its membership led to the demise of the Great West Conference.

In addition, four schools began the transition up from Division II starting this season. These schools were ineligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play until completing their D-I transitions in 2017.

The 2013–14 season was also the last for several other teams in their current conferences:

• Four schools would leave the Southern Conference (SoCon). Appalachian State and Georgia Southern left for the Sun Belt, Davidson for the Atlantic 10, and Elon for the CAA.
• Three schools would join the SoCon, with East Tennessee State and Mercer moving from the Atlantic Sun Conference and VMI leaving the Big South Conference. Both ETSU and VMI were former SoCon members, having respectively left the league in 2005 and 2003.
• East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa would all leave C-USA for The American.
• As noted above, Idaho would leave the WAC and return its non-football sports to the Big Sky Conference (after an 18-year absence).
• Louisville and Rutgers would spend only one season in The American; they respectively left for the ACC and Big Ten.
• Maryland would leave the ACC for the Big Ten.
• Oral Roberts would leave the Southland to return to its previous conference home of The Summit.
• Western Kentucky would leave the Sun Belt for C-USA.

• The Nebraska Cornhuskers left their home since 1976, the on-campus Bob Devaney Sports Center, for the new Pinnacle Bank Arena in downtown Lincoln. The Cornhuskers played their first game in the arena on November 8 against the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles.
• The Towson Tigers also left a venue that they had occupied since 1976, the Towson Center. Unlike Nebraska, Towson is staying on campus in the new Tiger Arena.
• The four Division I newcomers all used existing on-campus venues:
  • Abilene Christian – Moody Coliseum
  • Grand Canyon – Grand Canyon University Arena
  • Incarnate Word – McDermott Convocation Center
  • UMass Lowell – The River Hawks' main basketball venue is Costello Athletic Center. Another on-campus venue, the Tsongas Center, normally home to the school's ice hockey team, is available for games requiring a larger capacity.

• Expanded the use of video review as follows:
  • Shot-clock violations and who caused the ball to go out-of-bounds in the final 2:00 of regulation or overtime.
  • Determine if a field goal is worth two points or three in the final 4:00 of regulation or in the entire overtime period. Any other such review must wait until the next media time-out (16:00, 12:00 and 8:00 as well as the final 4:00 of the first half).
• Change the block/charge rule to not permit a defender from sliding in front of an offensive player at the last second to draw a charge. The defender must be in position when the offensive player begins his upward flight with the ball.
• Increasing emphasis on hand-checking or extended arms on defense.
• Permit the use of video review to determine if an elbow delivered above the shoulders of an opponent warrants a flagrant-1 or -2 foul (as was previously the case), a player control foul, or no call.

^[36]

A number of early-season tournaments will mark the beginning of the college basketball season.