SAN DIEGO — N.C. State may have gotten to take the Holiday Bowl trophy home with it on Wednesday, but whether it got the 10th win it so desperately wanted depends on who you ask.
N.C. State is claiming a forfeit victory in the canceled bowl game but the NCAA will not officially recognize it because the game, by its rules, is a no contest and not a forfeit after UCLA withdrew.
“As an institution we are able to do that,” N.C. State spokesperson Fred Demarest told The News & Observer on Wednesday. “Their interpretation, as it was explained to us, is that they may not recognize it but we are able to count it by our own process and method.”
NCAA spokesperson David Worlock wrote in an email, “We will consider the NC State-UCLA game a no contest.”
The ACC will consider N.C. State a nine-win team.
“We follow NCAA statistical guidelines,” an ACC spokesperson told the N&O.
N.C. state athletic director Boo Corrigan indicated Tuesday that the school would pay contract bonuses for 10 wins.
According to Dave Doeren’s contract, in his ninth season as the Wolfpack’s head coach, he is to receive a bonus of $150,000 for leading the team to a 10-win season. State finishing the regular season 9-3 already earned Doeren a bonus of $100,000 (his victories-based bonus starts at eight wins, and $50,000, and increases by $50,000 with each win).
In addition to Doeren’s individual bonus, a 10th win adds an additional $100,000 for his assistant coaches. Their salary pool increased by $300,000 for winning nine games, and a 10th victory pushes the collective bonus to $400,000.
N.C. State has won 10 games only once in school history, the 11-3 team in 2002 that completed its season with an actual football victory over Notre Dame in the actual Gator Bowl.
There is, of course, a long history of N.C. Triangle teams claiming imaginary honors, whether it’s North Carolina’s 1924 Helms Foundation national championship in basketball or N.C. State’s banner at Doak Field honoring last spring’s College World Series “semifinalists,” after COVID-19 sent that team home early.
In 2012, when UNC was under a postseason ban and finished first in its division but wasn’t allowed to play for the ACC title, the Tar Heels gave out Coastal Division championship rings. The Wolfpack’s insistence on a double digit this football season fits right in.
UCLA, citing COVID-19 issues within its team, pulled out of Tuesday night’s Holiday Bowl against the Wolfpack mere hours before kickoff, leaving N.C. State with very little time to find a new opponent. The game was officially canceled Wednesday morning.
The applicable NCAA rule states that “There is no forfeit of a contest until all participating teams are present and the referee or other appropriate contest official has assumed jurisdiction.” When a team “does not appear … a forfeit is not recorded unless the rules of the sport provide that option.”
The same rule would apply if South Carolina is unable to play North Carolina in Thursday’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., because of COVID-19 issues within the Gamecocks’ program.
“Game officials get jurisdiction over the game 90 minutes prior to kickoff,” the NCAA’s Worlock wrote. “Had UCLA backed out at that point, or at any other point closer to kickoff, the game officials would have had the option to declare a forfeit.”
The rule does, however, allow conferences to declare forfeits in “circumstances involving institutions from the same conference,” which is what the ACC did this fall, ruling that any team unable to play because of COVID-19 issues would forfeit that game.
The ACC, facing an onslaught of basketball cancellations during this omicron surge, changed that policy earlier this month, returning to the no-contest policy that was in place during the 2020-21 academic year.
The College Football Playoff last week announced that the two non-playoff bowls — the Fiesta and Peach — would be considered no contests if either team was unable to play but the playoff bowls would be considered forfeits, with the team able to play advancing or claiming the championship in the event the semifinals or final could not be rescheduled within a week.
If both teams were unable to play in the championship, that game would be declared a no contest and the title vacated this season.
———
Staff writer Andrew Carter contributed to this report.
