BTW, that section of the Big West bylaws also sets that standings are set by winning percentage if teams don't play a full conference schedule:

"In the event that all teams do not play a complete conference schedule, the final regular
season standings (and possible championship tournament seeding) will be based on
winning percentage in conference contests."

Big West rule is 5 + 3 reserves.

In the event of an issue beyond the control of the institution, a team shall be expected to
honor a scheduled contest if it can field a starting line-up and a suitable number of
reserves for that particular sport. A suitable number of reserves in the sport of basketball
shall be three players.

From here: https://bigwest.org/documents/2021/9/13//Section_6_Mens_Basketball.pdf?id=4867

1) I doubt Coach Les is gaming the system like that.
2) If they have a problem with the forfeit/no-contest rule, they need to take it up with the NCAA.

Section 3. Forfeit/No Contest
Art. 1. A forfeit is the termination of the game by the referee by declaring one
team the winner by forfeit.
Art. 2. The referee shall declare a forfeit when:
a. Any player, team member or bench personnel fails to comply with any
flagrant or technical-foul penalty or makes a travesty of the game.
b. When conditions warrant.
c. A team refuses to play after being instructed to do so by an official.
Art. 3. The referee shall determine the length of time that shall elapse before a
forfeit may be declared.
Art. 4. Conference policy may include an established time limit before the
referee may declare a forfeit.
Art. 5. When a forfeit is declared, the score shall be recorded as 2-0 and all statistics
(other than the teams’ and head coaches’ won-lost records) shall be voided, unless
30 minutes of playing time has been completed on the game clock. In that case, the
score at the end of play shall stand and all other statistics shall count.
Art. 6. When the team that is behind in the scorebook is to be declared
the winning team, that score shall be marked with an asterisk in the official
statistics; and it shall be noted that the game was won by forfeit.
Art. 7. A “no contest” is when a team does not appear at the game site because
of inclement weather, an accident, vehicle breakdown, illness or catastrophic
cause. An institution shall not, for statistical purposes, declare a forfeit for nonfulfillment of a contract, but rather shall declare a “no contest.” When officials
are not present or available to officiate, there cannot be a sanctioned game/
contest.

Article 7 is the applicable rule in this case.

Five starters and three reserves are the minimum squad per the Big West.

The reason these numbers are at the tip of my fingers is because UC Irvine's WBB team is going through the same thing, and we discussed it in one of the WBB threads. :)

"Forfeit" vs "No Contest" is a NCAA-wide rule. The league rules come into effect regarding the minimum number of players (eight, in the case of basketball).

The ever-popular fouls and timeouts stage of the game...

Observed that the backup guards aren't seeing the open bigs on their cuts--that needs to improve into next year--and when they do see them they don't always get them the ball in stride.

Norris needs minutes and confidence, I think.

72-49 final, Aggies win!

Sabel and Turner each with 22 to leadi the Davis scoring.
Norris the leading rebounder with 6; Sabel and Sussman right behind her with 5 each.
Turner the top disher with 4 assists.

The Megan Jones Block Party racks up another 4 blocks.

57-33 end of 3Q.

Sometime before they have to worry about minimum numbers of games, I hope!

One of the Irvine fans found the minimum squad size, per the Big West: "In the event of an issue beyond the control of the institution, a team shall be expected to honor a scheduled contest if it can field a starting line-up and a suitable number of reserves for that particular sport. A suitable number of reserves in the sport of basketball shall be three players"

I think they were down to 6 or 7 after last week's games.

NCAAW rulebook: "Art. 7. A “no contest” is when a team does not appear at the game site because
of inclement weather, an accident, vehicle breakdown, illness, or catastrophic
cause."

I guess that's why it's a "no contest" instead of a "forfeit."

There's some additional language about "failing to fulfill a contract" not being allowed to be counted as a forfeit. The root of the language choice seems to be whether officials were on site and started the game. If so--forfeit. If not, then no game occurred = no contest.

The justification I heard when the CCAA and BW moved away from weekend games was "we want to be on tv and not compete with the Pac10, etc." Didn't really buy that rationale then, and I certainly don't now when you can stream whatever you want whenever you want.

Weekend travel was certainly less impactful on the STUDENT-athletes.

*old guy yelling at clouds*

They were at one of the weekend games that my wife and 9-yr-old attended. FWIW.

*old guy shouting at clouds*

Maybe they should move the games back to Friday and Saturday evenings?!

:rage:

No minutes for Burns; anyone have the story on that?

De-fense! De-fense!

Wife is sitting next to the Pioneer High girls coach, who says the Aggies are slow on their rotations and leaving threes open.

Team is not consistent against any sort of press.

Half court shots included Pele making one granny-style. She's still got it! :rofl: