Forfeits & No Contests
NO CONTESTS
Teams are required to fulfill their seasonal commitment by playing in every scheduled contest. Those programs that fail to play any of their contests are immediately suspended for the remainder of the season, in addition to the following year. Furthermore, all league fees for the current season are still required to be paid, regardless of how many games were played.
Teams missing a contest for a legitimate reason (car breakdown, weather related, COVID, institutional policy, etc.) may request an exception by writing the CWPA Commissioner and explaining the situation. Request should be made prior to the competition when possible, or within 48 hours after its conclusion, to avoid financial penalties and remain in good standing with the league.
Programs that know they will be unable to fulfill their commitment should contact the office immediately to allow for schedule revisions and adequate communication.
FORFEITS
Teams wishing to avoid a no contest must show up at the site with four players capable of competing. Teams may borrow players to contest the game, however the contest will be recorded as a 5-0 forfeit. In varsity competition, the NCAA media coordination and statistics policy on forfeits applies and is final in all matters:
“There is no forfeit of a contest until all participating teams are present and the referee or other appropriate contest official has assumed jurisdiction in accordance with the applicable playing rules. When a team does not appear (e.g., due to weather conditions, accidents, breakdown of vehicles, illness or catastrophic circumstances, shortage of players), a forfeit is not recorded unless the rules of the sport provide that option. An institution shall not, for statistical purposes, declare a forfeit for non-fulfillment of a contest. Such instances shall be considered as “no contest.” In circumstances involving institutions from the same conference, the league office has the option to declare a forfeit win and loss for conference-standings purposes only but this does not change an institution’s overall won-lost record. The “no contest” declaration came into effect at the start of the 1977-78 season.
If a league declares a forfeit it does not impact statistics, including coaching records, nor does it affect the overall won-lost records of the teams involved. A conference can, for the purposes of establishing seeding for a conference tournament or league standings in general, alter the conference won-lost records of teams involved with a game that the league labels a forfeit (even if the national office officially calls it a no contest).
Games determined to be “no contests” do not impact the NET, RPI or any other metric, nor are they used for Division II and Division III score reporting. Individual sports committees will maintain the practice of evaluating teams based on their results in games/matches that took place.”