Big Ten Says Teams Will Forfeit If COVID-19 Cancels Game
College football is about to kick off but with that, are some new rules for the season that involve COVID-19.
I was surprised last year that so many colleges still had sports even though the pandemic was really revving up last fall that caused many games to be rescheduled or canceled due to COVID-19. Conferences learned a lot last year and this year have already put some new rules in place to keep the 2021 season moving uninterrupted.
Something new that was put into place is a the Big Ten have brought in a chief medical officer, former Wisconsin coach and athletic director Barry Alvarez. Alvarez was instrumental last season on getting the Big Ten to return to competing. This year he will be advising teams in the Big Ten.
According to FOX 17, so the answer to the million dollar question, what will happen if a Big Ten team gets COVID-19 and can't play their game? It won't be rescheduled this year, which ever team gets COVID-19, they will forfeit their game to the opposing team and it will count as a loss.
Now if both teams cannot play the game because of COVID-19, this game will a no contest game. I'm not sure if that game will be considered a draw as a teams record is concerned or those two teams will be short on their win loss records at the end of the season. Who knows what will be in place for playoff games but I'm sure as we get closer those games the protocols will be made public.
Last year there were not too many fans and other college teams who were pleased to see Ohio State in the national championship game when in a lot of cases they only played half as many games as other teams.
Many Big Ten schools are requiring players to be vaccinated while some schools are not.
Us Michiganders can only hope that college programs in our state learned a lot from last year on how to avoid players and staff from getting COVID-19 but what we have seen even from the pro's and having vaccinated players, it is still tough to control.