College Football Champion Can Be Selected Through COVID Forfeit

Matt Corral
Matt Corral

In quite a bizarre new ruling, a policy written this week states that any college football team can advance to the national championship and win it under extenuating circumstances.

The extenuating circumstances thus stated are the opponent team forfeiting due to COVID cases. The new policy has been written by the CFP as a response to the surging number of cases of the omicron variant. The entire policy was released on Wednesday and is available for perusal on their official website. 

College Football Policy Might Be Shifting Its Positions Due To Covid

The changes, which were made by the College Football Playoff’s management committee during a videoconference on Tuesday, also pushed in for flexibility for the national championship game on the 10th of January in Indianapolis, to be pushed back no later than the 14th of January.

The rules clearly state that if one team has the bench strength to play the game and the other team doesn’t- and it is stipulated that the match cannot be postponed any further, the team which was able to take the ground will be declared the winner. If both of the teams are unable to play in the finals, then the game will be declared a no-contest and the national championship for this season will end up being vacated. 

The College Football Policy is still expecting all of its games to be played with a full audience. No 1 Alabama will be facing the fourth-ranked team Cincinnati on the 31st of December at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, while no 3 Georgia will be facing No 2 Michigan on the 31st of December in the CFP Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl. 

As stipulated by the College Football Policy, if one of the teams is unable to field a full-strength team during this period, the other team will get a bye to the Final game.