The Big Ten has revised its cancellation and forfeit policy for conference games due to a surge in COVID-19 cases because of the Omicron variant.
Under the old policy, s cancellation because of an inability to play because of COVID-19 resulted in a forfeiture of the contest for the team that was unable to field a team. However, under the new, revised policy, games could be rescheduled, declared a no contest, or still a forfeit if a team is unable to show cause for not being able to play.
“The conference office and all 14 Big Ten member institutions have been in continuous contact about developments related to COVID-19,” said Big Ten Conference Commissioner Kevin Warren in a statement Tuesday. “The well-being of our student-athletes and our entire athletic communities is our top priority and we are updating our forfeiture policy to support their health and safety as well as the integrity of conference competition.”
The Big Ten Conference has updated its forfeiture policy for remaining 2021-22 conference contests across all sponsored sports.
Full update ⬇️ https://t.co/yeHrg3KcA1
— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) December 28, 2021
Long story short, if there are circumstances that warrant the cancellation of a game that is in done for the health and safety of all involved, the game could be rescheduled by the league office, or simply ruled a no contest instead of being an automatic forfeit. Teams will need to show why the game needed to be canceled and the league will make the ultimate determination.
All we can say is that this is a move in the right direction. Who knows where the pandemic will go from here, but it would be terrible to penalize teams for not being able to play because of an uptick in COVID-19 cases globally, much of which is hard to control.
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