The Atlantic 10 conference revised its COVID-19 forfeiture policy to require games to be postponed or rescheduled if team members test positive for the virus, the athletic department announced in a release Tuesday.
Athletic directors of the A-10 programs voted Tuesday to approve a change in their postponement and scheduling policy of women’s and men’s basketball games due to a recent surge of COVID-19 cases and the spread of the Omicron variant. The A-10’s current COVID-19 policy states that games must be postponed or rescheduled by the A-10 conference office if any team member tests positive and that if games cannot be rescheduled they will be declared a no contest.
The A-10’s medical advisory committee will be meeting this Wednesday to review the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s updated isolation policies for asymptomatic vaccinated individuals, a time period that was recently reduced to five days from 10.
The new policy states that conference standing and championship seeding will be based on an approved formula that balances team win-loss records with the total number of contests completed by a team. If a team decides not to play in a rescheduled match, the team will suffer a forfeit by the league.
The revision also requires teams that have at least seven scholarship players and one countable coach to compete in all conference contests, but teams will also be allowed to participate with less than seven student-athletes. If the team decides not to play under these conditions, they will suffer a forfeit and be given a conference loss.
The release states the league commissioner may choose to administer penalties, like forfeitures or fines, on programs that do not meet the league code of conduct of rescheduling games. The release also states the decision regarding the forfeiture policies of spring sports will be announced at a later date, as they continue to monitor the pandemic with its medical advisory team.
Men’s basketball’s Dec. 30 home match against Saint Bonaventure was postponed over COVID-19 concerns.