Pac-12 adjusts COVID-related policies for men's and women's basketball

The Pac-12 will no longer count COVID-related game cancellations in men’s and women’s basketball games as forfeits, while also establishing parameters to be used to determine a postponement, the conference announced Wednesday.

Postponed games will be rescheduled if possible, the league said, and if not the matchup will be deemed a “no contest” and not count toward either team’s conference record. Previously the team that had to cancel would be issued a forfeit and their opponent would get a conference win, as had been the case with Washington men’s basketball getting a forfeit for a COVID cancellation against UCLA earlier this month.

Arizona’s original Pac-12 opener, at home against Washington, had already been rescheduled for Jan. 25.

The Wildcats' next two Pac-12 opponents, UCLA and USC, are currently in COVID pauses, putting in jeopardy their scheduled games in Los Angeles on Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, respectively.

In order for a Pac-12 game to be postponed due to COVID-19 issues, a team must have fewer than seven available scholarship players and/or one available countable coach. Teams can opt to play with below those numbers, the league said.

With the strong possibility of not every Pac-12 fan being able to play all 20 men’s or 18 women’s conference games, regular season champions and conference tournament seedings will be based on win percentage. And to be eligible for the regular season title a team has to play no less than three fewer league games than the average played by all Pac-12 teams