The Big Ten on Tuesday updated its COVID-19 forfeiture policy for the remainder of the 2021-22 athletic season across all of its sports.
The changes bring the league in line with every other power conference in the country, which have moved away from automatic forfeits.
Instead of an automatic forfeit, the Big Ten will attempt to reschedule games or declare a game a no-contest if one or both teams are unable to participate due to a shortage of players.
"The conference office and all 14 Big Ten member institutions have been in continuous contact about developments related to COVID-19," Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said in a news release. "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 rescheduling of games will have to be approved by the Big Ten Conference office.
Forfeits will still be a part of the equation, but only as a last resort, the conference said.
In men's and women's basketball, teams will need to have seven scholarship athletes and at least one coach available. A team with fewer than that number of players can still compete if approved by appropriate medical personnel. In other words, a game might not be automatically postponed if a team has fewer than seven scholarship players.
Conversely, a team that is not below the number of requisite competitors and a coach may still determine that it is unsafe to compete. In such a case, forfeiture will not be automatic, but an institution would need to demonstrate to the conference office, including the league's chief medical officer, the circumstances that have led to a determination that it would be unsafe to compete.
A team that does not compete, and is unable to demonstrate why it is unsafe to compete, will be assessed a forfeit. Postponed competitions that do not result in forfeiture but are unable to be rescheduled will be declared no contests.
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