Pac-12 Basketball: Testing Policies -- 7 Players Need to Be Available
The Pac-12 announced its testing policies for men's and women's basketball on Tuesday, and it outlined how many players need to be available to play a game.
A team is considered available to play a game if it has at least seven scholarship players and one coach available to participate.
However, a team can still elect to play a game if it has fewer than the minimum number of players available for a scheduled game. If that team elects not to play with fewer than seven players, the game may be rescheduled or declared a no contest.
In other words, a team must play if it has at least seven players available, but could choose to play with just five or six players available.
Here is the entire Pac-12 release on the policies:
SAN FRANCISCO – The Pac-12 Conference released today further details on its men’s and women’s basketball testing protocols to protect the health and safety of student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 basketball programs. The Conference also announced its basketball game cancellation policy.
Testing Protocols
Key elements of the testing protocols for basketball student-athletes include the following:
---Daily point-of-care testing on each day of full practice, higher-risk of transmission activity, travel, and games;
---Minimum once weekly PCR test (in addition to daily point-of-care testing);
---Any positive daily point-of-care antigen test must be followed by a PCR test within 24 hours;
---Game day air ambulance service will be available in case any individual tests positive while traveling for competition;
---For non-Conference opponents, a minimum of four tests the week leading up to competition, including on game day;
---For multi-team events, a minimum of three tests per week leading up to the event along with a test on the day of arrival and prior to each game; and
---All testing protocols continue to be subject to state, local, and campus public health requirements.
A more detailed summary of the minimum testing requirements can be found below.
The return-to-play testing summary supplements the Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Group’s return-to-play considerations and guidance, most recently published on September 24.
Game Cancellation Policy
The Pac-12 has established a minimum roster count with which a team is considered available to play a scheduled basketball game: at least seven (7) scholarship players and one (1) countable coach available to participate. If a team has fewer than the minimum roster available for a scheduled game, the impacted institution may elect to play the game with fewer than the minimum roster seven (7) scholarship players. Otherwise, upon review and approval by the Commissioner, the game may be rescheduled or declared a no contest. In all cases cancellation, postponement and rescheduling of a contest will be decided by the Conference in consultation with the participating teams and the Pac-12 medical advisory group.
In addition, a game may be canceled for:
---Inability to isolate new positive cases within a team or athletic department, or to quarantine high-risk contacts (as determined by local public health and medical staff).
---Unavailability or inability to perform testing as provided by the Pac-12 medical guidelines.
---Campus-wide or local community transmission rates that are considered unsafe by local public health officials.
---Inability to perform adequate contact tracing consistent with governmental requirements.
---Local public health officials of the home team state that there is an inability for the hospital infrastructure to accommodate a surge.
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