Here’s what will happen if a Pac-12 team can’t play a conference game this season

Utah Utes defensive end Mika Tafua (42) brings down Oregon State Beavers quarterback Chance Nolan (10) as Utah and Oregon State play a college football game at Rice-Eccles stadium in Salt Lake City on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020. COVID-19 is continuing to wreak havoc, but there will now be a penalty in the Pac-12 Conference for teams that have to cancel games because of it. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

COVID-19 is continuing to wreak havoc, but there will now be a penalty in the Pac-12 Conference for teams that have to cancel games because of it.

The conference announced on Thursday that any team that is unable to play a game “through its own fault” will forfeit that game to its opponent. The forfeit will result in a loss for that team and be recorded as a win for the opponent. This rule has been primarily put in place because of COVID-19, but it could theoretically be applied in other situations, too.

Pac-12 statement on 2021-22 Forfeiture Policy.

(2021-22 Policy: https://t.co/6bElpPSquq) pic.twitter.com/4ON10EKmQ3

— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) August 12, 2021

Thursday’s announcement states that the conference commissioner, George Kliavkoff, will have the ultimate discretion in determining whether or not a team is truly at fault “based on the facts of the situation.”

The Pac-12 played just a conference-only schedule in 2020 because of the pandemic, but many games were still called off. Oregon State and UCLA were able to get seven games in, while five teams played just four.

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