K-State wins by forfeit after TCU cancels women’s basketball game for unusual reasons
The Kansas State women’s basketball team added another Big 12 victory to its conference record without scoring a single point against the TCU Horned Frogs on Wednesday.
In an unexpected turn of events that will remind some of what college sports was like during the coronavirus pandemic, the Wildcats won by forfeit because the Horned Frogs didn’t have enough healthy student-athletes to take the court.
TCU was forced to cancel its game against K-State, which was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday inside Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, for unusual reasons that likely left both sides feeling frustrated.
No one enjoys calling off a game, especially one like this. Both K-State and TCU had plenty to play for.
The No. 7 Wildcats were eager to validate their recent surge into the top 10 and the Horned Frogs were hoping to pull off a memorable upset in front of their home crowd.
But none of those scenarios ended up playing out. K-State coach Jeff Mittie and his team have already turned their focus to a home game against rival Kansas on Saturday.
The Horned Frogs described the cancellation as “a result of injuries within the TCU program” to “ensure the health and safety of the program’s student-athletes.” There will be no attempt to reschedule the game.
The Wildcats will not come home empty handed from the Lone Star State, though. Per conference rules, a member institution must forfeit when it is unable to field a team unless extraordinary circumstances exist.
Games were regularly called off during the pandemic season of 2020-21 and later ruled a no contest, meaning that neither team was credited with a forfeit. But things have changed since then. K-State won this game simply by staying healthy enough to play.
With that in mind, K-State is now 6-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2007-08 season.
There is an unusual caveat to this forfeit, though. Per NCAA policy, the game is still determined to be a no contest when it comes to overall records for both teams. So K-State’s season-long record remains unchanged at 17-1.
In other words, this forfeit counts in the Big 12 standings but nowhere else.