Winning the national championship is one thing. Winning the national championship via forfeit is another thing entirely... and both of those scenarios are equally possible given the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapidly spreading omicron variant.
On Wednesday, the College Football Playoff policies were updated to include a number of precautionary measures in the event that COVID-19 forced one or more teams from participating in the semifinals and/or national championship.
Among the updated changes are the following:
— If one team is unable to play in a semifinal, "the unavailable team shall forfeit the game and its opponent would advance to the national championship game"
— If neither team is able to play in a semifinal, it will be called a "no contest" and the winner of the other semifinal will be declared the national champion
— If three semifinalists are unable to play, the lone team remaining will be declared the national champion
— If the semifinal games go through, but a team becomes unavailable to play in the national championship after the fact, the game "may be rescheduled to no later than Friday, January 14." If one team is unable to play and rescheduling is unsuccessful, the other team will become national champion. If neither team is available at that point, it will be called a "no contest" and there will be no national champion
— All media access at news conferences will be virtual
"We certainly wish we were not in this position," said Bill Hancock, the executive director of the CFP, "but the only responsible thing is to take whatever actions we can reasonably take to better protect those who play and coach the game."
Hancock also mentioned that these policies were put in place to best protect students and to provide "clarity in the event of worst-case scenarios."
As for the vaccination statuses of each team, the numbers vary based on the program. Cincinnati does not make its team vaccination rate public, according to what a school spokesperson shared with ESPN (via Heather Dinich). Alabama coach Nick Saban said that over 90 percent of the team is fully vaccinated and has received a booster shot. Similarly, a spokesperson for Georgia told ESPN that over 90 percent of the team is fully vaccinated. Michigan offensive lineman Andrew Stueber said that the entire team is getting a booster shot on Wednesday.
You can check out the full schedule of every college bowl game below — at least as the schedule currently stands. Texas A&M has dropped out of the Gator Bowl, though a new opponent is something they're looking into.
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