REPORT: SEC discussing financial penalties for COVID-19 forfeits

SEC officials are discussing potential financial penalties for schools that forfeit a game by failing to meet COVID-19 protocols, The Athletic reported on Monday. The SEC has no official COVID-19 game cancellation policy in place yet, despite early indications that it would force forfeitures if a team was unable to play.

SEC penalties for failing COVID-19 protocols

The SEC still has not finalized its COVID-19 game cancellation policy. But The Athletic reported league officials are discussing a potential financial penalty, which would be applied along with forcing a team to forfeit if it does not have the minimum number of players available.

While the SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was one of the first people to suggest the SEC would be considering forfeitures, the SEC has yet to finalize their game cancellation policy. They are the only Power 5 league without an official policy posted as of now.

The SEC kicks off the season on Sept. 2, so Sankey will have to make a decision in the next week.

The ultimate driving factor in avoiding missed games is because of television broadcasting contracts. If the SEC is unable to play games at any point, the conference loses income. The SEC aims to penalize teams based on their individual responsibility.

If games are called off, it costs the league television money. On top of that, schools whose teams had to forfeit would receives less from the conference’s revenue-sharing agreement than schools that didn’t have to forfeit. If an institution was ready to play, the thought is it would avoid penalization.

Big Ten COVID-19 game cancellation policy

Prior to the SEC report, the Big Ten conference unveiled their game cancellation policy on Monday.

“That contest shall be considered a loss for the team impacted by COVID-19 and a win for its opponents in the conference standings,” the Big Ten said in a statement. “If both of the two competing teams are unable to participate in a scheduled 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.’”

As SEC teams and fans await their official policy, other conferences around the nation have adopted similar policies to the Big Ten. When Greg Sankey finalizes the SEC’s plan, it is expected to be similar to the rest of the Power 5 conferences.

On3’s Stephen Samra contributed to this article.