Pac-12 Announces That Teams With COVID Infections Will Forfeit Games

The Pac-12 conference announced on Thursday that all of its teams will adhere to new forfeiture guidelines for the 2021-2022 season, especially those regarding COVID infections. The conference will now officially count COVID-related forfeited games as losses in the new season.

The guidelines during the resumed 2020 Pac-12 season initially granted teams dealing with COVID infections a postponed contest, and set up additional measures to help teams facing unexpected outbreaks.

With new cases still emerging, despite the ready availability of the vaccine, teams will have to find a way to safeguard players, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, in order to avoid forfeiting games and adding to their loss totals.

An excerpt from the statement reads:

"The Pac-12 has determined that its prior longstanding game forfeiture rule, that was temporarily modified for this past season due to COVID-19, shall once again be applied for this coming athletic season. In accordance with that rule, if an institution is unable to play a contest through its own fault, it shall forfeit such contest to its opponent. ...

"Any forfeited contest shall be regarded as a conference loss for the team making the forfeit and a conference win for its opponent. The Pac-12 rule provides the Commissioner with discretion to determine whether an institution is at fault or primarily at fault for an inability to play a contest based on the facts of the situation."

https://twitter.com/pac12/status/1425849619804655620?s=20

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