Cal couldn’t play USC because of COVID but wasn’t forced to forfeit: What gives?

The Pac-12’s authoritative presumption connected forfeitures, announced anterior to the season, seems clear:

“If an instauration is incapable to play a contention done its ain fault, it shall forfeit specified contention to its opponent. Any forfeited contention shall beryllium regarded arsenic a league nonaccomplishment for the squad making the forfeit and a league triumph for its opponent.”

So wherefore didn’t Cal forfeit this week’s crippled against USC erstwhile it became wide the Bears couldn’t play due to the fact that of COVID?

Partly due to the fact that of the adjacent condemnation successful the policy:

“The Pac-12 regularisation provides the Commissioner with discretion to find whether an instauration is astatine responsibility oregon chiefly astatine responsibility for an inability to play a contention based connected the facts of the situation.”

But mostly, the Bears didn’t forfeit due to the fact that of what that condemnation led to.

After Cal informed the league bureau that it didn’t person capable players to compete, commissioner George Kliavkoff had 2 choices:

1. Invoke the peculiar circumstances regularisation and determine unilaterally, based connected each disposable evidence, whether oregon not to state a forfeit.

2. Encourage Cal and USC to find a communal ground, past bring the substance backmost to Kliavkoff.

He opted for No. 2.

At that point, Cal diversion manager Jim Knowlton and his USC counterpart, Mike Bohn, had a chat.

For the Trojans, determination was 1 large crushed to propulsion for a forfeit.

They request 2 wins to go bowl-eligible. With a triumph by forfeiture successful hand, they would request to triumph conscionable 1 of their past 2 games (against UCLA and Brigham Young) to suffice for a berth.

But arsenic some diversion directors and their caput coaches knew, a forfeiture wasn’t successful the champion interests of the players connected either team.

Nor was this a lawsuit of the Bears ignoring the science: The squad is 99.5% vaccinated but was deed by breakthrough infections — the immense bulk of which, according to sources, were asymptomatic.

Their concern is precisely wherefore the commissioner was fixed the authorization to invoke the peculiar circumstances rule.

What’s more, USC has spent a season-and-a-half repelling COVID, and navigating COVID protocols, successful Los Angeles.

Theirs was a sympathetic ear.

“For (Cal) to not get to play would conscionable beryllium a crime,” USC interim manager Donte Williams told reporters aft signifier Tuesday.

“We privation to play the game, and a forfeit is not the mode to spell and not the mode you privation to suffice for a vessel game. Our full happening is warring connected and competing.”

Once Bohn and Knowlton reached an agreement, they went backmost to Kliavkoff, who invoked the peculiar circumstances clause and rescheduled the crippled for Dec. 4.

In summation to being the lone disposable day — the crippled indispensable beryllium played earlier vessel selections are made connected Dec. 5 — the agelong runway gives the league bureau clip to find a suitable enactment for the TV broadcast.

(The crippled was scheduled for FS1.)

“The determination to not person the crippled number arsenic a forfeit was made betwixt the diversion directors astatine Cal and USC,” Kliavkoff told the Hotline connected Wednesday.

“USC could person argued for a forfeit but decided to bash what was close for their student-athletes and the student-athletes astatine Cal. It was an unthinkable amusement of enactment by USC.”

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