The ACC announced Wednesday that they have changed their policy around teams having to forfeit games due to Covid-19.
The Atlantic Coast Conference announced Wednesday that it has modified its 2021-22 COVID-19 rescheduling policy.
The decision was unanimously supported by the league’s athletics directors as a result of the current rise in COVID cases and its impact on winter sport programs. If possible, games that cannot be played as scheduled will be rescheduled. If a game cannot be played and cannot be rescheduled, it will be considered a no contest.
For men’s and women’s basketball, a team must have a roster minimum of seven game available student-athletes and one countable coach to play a game. If a team does not have the requisite number of participants, and elects not to play, the game shall be a no contest. If a team has the requisite number of participants and does not participate, the game will be declared a forfeit. This policy shall be retroactive to any results beginning with the 2021 ACC winter sports schedule.
Previously, teams who couldn’t play their originally scheduled game due to an insufficient number of available players related to COVID-19 would to have forfeit, with a loss assigned to the team unable to play and a win assigned to its scheduled opponent. Both the loss and win, respectively, were applied to the conference standings.
The rise in cases due to the Omicron variant has caused collegiate and professional sports to reevaluate their rules regarding games that cannot be played due to positive cases or exposure.