Big Ten to force forfeits, won't reschedule football games due to COVID-19

The Big Ten joined the other power conferences on Monday by announcing its COVID-19 policies for the upcoming fall seasons ahead of Saturday's football opener between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Illinois Fighting Illini. 

"The conference has determined that if one of its member institutions is unable to play a conference contest due to COVID-19, that contest shall be declared a forfeit and will not be rescheduled," the Big Ten declared in an official statement. "That contest shall be considered a loss for the team impacted by COVID-19 and a win for its opponent in the conference standings. 

"If both of the two competing teams are unable to participate in a scheduled conference competition due to COVID-19 and as a result the competition is unable to occur on the calendar day on which it is scheduled, the competition shall be considered a 'no contest.'"

The ACC, SEC, Pac-12 and Big 12 previously announced similar guidelines before the United States Food and Drug Administration officially approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday. The ACC went one step further and said that two teams involved in a game can be made to forfeit if both are unable to play because of setbacks related to the coronavirus. 

According to Harry Lyles Jr. of ESPN, unvaccinated college athletes are to be tested for COVID-19 weekly, wear masks in most situations, and quarantine if exposed to an infected individual. Vaccinated athletes don't need to be tested as often.