Big East rightly softens its approach
Christmas came a few days early for the men’s basketball programs at DePaul, Georgetown and Seton Hall when the Big East Conference announced on Wednesday it had modified its cancelation policy in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Under the initial policy, which was announced back in November, any men’s or women’s basketball game that could not be played on its original date if one team was unable to begin or complete the game due to an insufficient number of players due to COVID-19 or other reasons, the game would go down as a forfeit with the team that forfeited given a loss and it’s opponent a win.
However, the league began to rethink that policy after four men’s games were canceled and forfeits awarded because of COVID-19 outbreaks within the DePaul, Georgetown and Seton Hall programs.
DePaul was hit the hardest. The Blue Demons were initially hit with two forfeit losses when it had to cancel games against Creighton and Seton Hall. The Hoyas and Pirates also suffered losses when its games against Providence and St. John’s.
Under the new policy, a game will be postponed if a team has fewer than seven scholarship players and one countable coach. The league will attempt to reschedule the game. If the game cannot be replayed on a later date it will be considered a no contest.
“The adjustment was the result of the recent sudden and significant increases in the number of COVID-19 cases nationally and within Big East programs due to the spread of the omicron variant,” the league said in a statement.
It’s the right move.
Since that announcement, two more games were banged. Butler’s game at St. John’s Thursday was called off due to COVID issues within the Red Storm’s program and Georgetown’s visit to Creighton on Dec. 28 was canceled due to COVID issues with the Hoyas.
So instead of being 0-2 in the league, DePaul is 0-0, as are Seton Hall, St. John’s, Georgetown and Butler.
With the uptick in cases, leagues
have to be flexible as all leagues, including the Big East, were last season. Creighton and Butler were the only Big East teams to play the full 20game schedule last season. St. John’s, Seton Hall, Providence and Marquette managed to get in 19 conference games. Connecticut played 17 games, Georgetown 16, Villanova and DePaul 15 and Xavier 13.
Any game that wasn’t played was considered a no-contest, not a forfeit, and was reflected in the league standings. That’s how Villanova was able to win its seventh Big East regular-season title in eight years with an 11-4 record even though the Wildcats played five fewer games than Creighton (146), which finished second.
The regular-season champion has always gone to the team with the highest winning percentage. Villanova won 73.3 percent of its league games last season and Creighton 70 percent.
“The current Big East forfeit policy was put in place and was supported during a different phase of the pandemic,” DePaul athletic director DeWayne Peevy said on Twitter after the Creighton game was canceled.
The ACC, Big 12, SEC, PAC-12, Mid-American and Conference USA announced similar adjustments to its policies. The Big Ten is evaluating its policy.
Of course, rescheduling the games that have been postponed will be tough. The schedules are already pretty tight so there isn’t much wiggle room. DePaul, for example, has a week between its games against Marquette on the road (Jan. 11) and home versus Xavier (Jan. 19). Other than that, the Blue Demons are playing every three or four days.
Every other team in the league is in the same boat. And you can’t move the Big East Tournament back because that’s locked in for Madison Square Garden from March 9-12.
This virus isn’t going away any time soon. The omicron variant is spreading rapidly throughout the world and has affected all segments of society including sports at every level. The NHL shut down for a week after an outbreak throughout the league. The NFL has moved games to avoid forfeits. The NBA is allowing teams to sign replacement players to fill roster spots.
The only rigid rule that works is a complete shutdown like the one in March of 2020 that when the virus broke out.
To prevent that from happening again leagues have to be flexible like the colleges were last season. The no-contest policy worked for the Big East and other leagues in 202021 so it should work again this season.