How Pac-12 forfeiture policy impacts Arizona Football for the 2021-22 season

With the 2021-22 sports seasons quickly approaching, the Pac-12 conference is implementing a forfeiture policy for its member schools that could impact Arizona Football.  

We are quickly closing in on the season starting for Arizona Football and virtually every other fall sport in the Pac-12, and by all accounts, we should be in store for an exciting year.

As we all witnessed last year, 2020 was quite a challenging one, not only for fans that didn’t get to attend the games but also for the athletes as they battled the threat of COVID, travel complications, etc.

Arizona Wildcats

However, as we all saw a few times last year, Arizona Athletics was at the mercy of other teams in and out of the conference and it became frustrating seeing several postponements, cancellations or reschedules.

And even as Arizona Football finished the year 0-5, and the Men’s Basketball team missed the postseason due to a self-imposed ban, one thing Arizona Athletics deserve a ton of credit for was keeping their athletes protected and continually testing negative.

Well, as we head into the 2021-22 season, the Pac-12 is implementing a new forfeiture policy that is long overdue.

Last year was a wild one for everyone, and 2021 could pose to be a challenging one as well, especially as the Delta variant of COVID-19 seems to have cases on the rise again, which could mean possible postponements, cancellations or reschedules.

Perhaps some good news is that the Pac-12 is implementing a reversal to their forfeiture policy that will punish the teams who are unable to play due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Unlike last year, if a team has to forfeit, the game will be considered a loss rather than a “no contest”.

Where Arizona Football may stand to benefit here in 2021, is that the team reportedly has 115 of 118 players currently vaccinated.

All I know is that if this policy existed last year, Arizona perhaps could have seen a few more wins in several different sports.