SEC Announces Event Cancellation Policies of 2021-22

As the conference continues to monitor all things COVID-19 and its affects to SEC athletics, it announced official protocols in the event of forfeits, virus-related absences, and unavailability.

Monday afternoon, the SEC announced its official policies regarding COVID-19-related cancellations, forfeits, and the general outline of how the conference will handle athletic events in 2021-22. 

The most important distinction from the previous year's policy is that teams with virus-related absences, or anything that prevents them from competing in a scheduled contest will be forced to forfeit the game, and it will be recorded as a loss to that team's conference record. Meanwhile, the opposing team able to participate will be credited with a win in SEC play.

And any forfeited event will be reflected in the conference standings as a completed game, as if the game had been played under normal circumstances.

Also, however likely or unlikely, in the event that neither team can compete in the scheduled contest both will be forced to forfeit and, like other instances, their SEC records will reflect such.

Specific to each sport are tie-breakers that, if needed, will be used to determine conference champions, division champions, and seeding of conference championship events and tournaments.

Relating to teams able to compete, each program can be considered to recoup direct financial losses from games not played by submitting the case to the SEC Executive Committee. The case-by-case outline is subject to approval from the committee. 

The SEC played 68 of 70 conference-only football games in 2020, and earlier this month its commissioner Greg Sankey pleaded to fans as he continues to promote the importance of higher vaccination rates among not only member schools of the SEC, but fans expected to be in attendance at games this year.