As wildfires raged in Los Angeles in early January, the Northwestern women’s basketball team opted not to travel to face their new Big Ten opponents UCLA and USC.
The Wildcats will be forfeiting those games, the Big Ten said Wednesday, resulting in one more win apiece for No. 2 UCLA and No. 4 USC.
The games were originally scheduled for Jan. 12 and 15. Northwestern announced it would not be traveling on Jan. 10, one day after the NFL announced it would move the Jan. 13 Rams–Vikings wild-card game to Arizona. The Lakers, Clippers, and Kings all postponed games.
Efforts were made to reschedule the games, a person close to the situation tells Front Office Sports, but with the postseason approaching, a fix wasn’t able to be made. In conference play, UCLA will improve to 15–1, USC is now 16–1, and Northwestern falls to 2–15.
“Northwestern Athletics accepts the decision by the Big Ten Conference to strictly apply the Conference bylaws as written, in issuing forfeits for missed competitions by Northwestern’s Women’s Basketball after the team’s decision not to travel to Los Angeles during the tragic wildfires in Southern California,” Northwestern athletic director Mark Jackson said in a statement to Front Office Sports. “While we acknowledge that bylaws and rules are in place for a reason and we will abide by them, it does not diminish this team’s sound reasoning for not participating during this natural disaster.”
While Northwestern decided not to travel, other Big Ten teams still went to L.A. to play during the wildfires. Penn State women’s basketball played USC on campus Jan. 12, then faced UCLA Jan. 15 in a game relocated to Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid. The Iowa men’s team also traveled for a Jan. 14 game at USC.
UCLA remained open during the wildfires, though its campus was much closer to the flames than USC’s. The Bruins women’s basketball team was returning from an away game when the fires broke out, and some donors traveling with them learned about the flames threatening their homes—which were eventually destroyed—on the team plane, coach Cori Close said.
Representatives for the Big Ten did not comment. UCLA and USC declined to comment.
