The Atlantic 10 postponed its first round of conference basketball games Tuesday and announced updated forfeit policies amid a nationwide spike in COVID-19 cases.
The UMass men’s basketball team’s conference opener against Saint Louis on Thursday in the Mullins Center is off, as is the women’s team’s game against George Mason on Saturday. In total, the A-10 postponed nine basketball games.
The Minutemen are next scheduled to play at Fordham on Sunday, while the Minutewomen have a Jan. 5 date at Rhode Island.
The women’s team last played Dec. 22 against Hartford in a blowout win. Tuesday’s game at Dartmouth was postponed.
UMass hasn’t played a men’s game since beating Fairfield on Dec. 19. Its most recent contest Dec. 22 against NJIT was canceled due to COVID issues within the Highlander program.
Under the new forfeit policy, games that cannot be played due to positive COVID tests “will be postponed and attempted to be rescheduled by the Atlantic 10 Conference office,” the release said.
If a new date cannot be found, the game will be declared a no contest.
Conference standings and seeds for the championship tournaments will be determined by a pre-approved formula balancing team win-loss records and the total number of games played.
Teams must have seven available scholarship athletes and one coach to play. If a program opts out of a game despite meeting those thresholds, they will forfeit the contest.
“Atlantic 10 institutions and basketball programs are committed to the health and safety of its student-athletes, coaches, administrators and fans, and will continue to follow state and local guidelines regarding vaccines and boosters, testing, quarantining and return to play” the release said. “The athletic directors also reaffirmed that the Commissioner may choose to enact penalties, including a forfeit or a fine, on a program that does not meet the league code of conduct policies when games are being rescheduled.”
This change supersedes the forfeit policy put in place in the fall, while decisions about spring sports will be made at a later date.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.