MIAA establishes cancellation policy due to COVID

Concerns over possible game cancellations due to COVID-19 sent the MIAA Tournament Management Committee into action.

After a lengthy discussion over how to handle the possibility that a game could get called off due to COVID, the TMC voted unanimously to accept the motion put forth by John Brown. The Wellesley athletic director proposed if a game is canceled due to one team having a case of COVID, it would be considered a nocontest for power ratings.

They also added the caveat that if a team failed to make the tournament as a result, they would be allowed to appeal to the MIAA. For instance, if a team ended the season 8-9 or 9-10, they would have a final opportunity to plead their case.

Just prior to the COVID conversation, the TMC unanimously declared that, in the event of a forfeit, the final result would go into the books for ratings purposes as the maximum margin of victory (MOV) per sport. For the sake of fall team sports, soccer, volleyball and field hockey would be 3-0, while football would be 14-0.

The TMC also voted to change the second part of the tiebreaker policy for tournament seeding purposes. As now worded, the second step will be the average of the opponents’ ratings.

Jim O’Leary remains the TMC chairman, while Johanna DiCarlo was voted in as vice chairman. New Bedford athletic director Tom Tarpey replaced Bridgewater-Raynham’s Dan Buron on the committee. Buron retired as football coach and AD in June.