The KHSAA has awarded Todd County Central a forfeit victory in the scheduled Aug. 30 football game at Fort Knox that wasn’t played due to a lack of officials.
Todd County traveled the 135 miles to Fort Knox and was on the field warming up when they were notified no game referees were on site to officiate the game. They later discovered the assigning secretary had failed to assign officials for the game.
After it was determined no game would be played that night, both schools left the field with different translations of how the outcome would be decided.
Todd County felt as if the game was a forfeited win, while Fort Knox felt like it was a ‘no game’ since they had no control over the scheduling of officials.
Todd County High School Athletic Director Jeff Young said they were told by the KHSAA Tuesday that the Rebels would be awarded a forfeited win. He said it’s considered a ‘partial forfeit’ for contract purposes since the game was ready to be played with the exception for having game officials, but it’s still a forfeited win.
He added both schools are continuing to negotiate how Todd County Central will be reimbursed for their travel to Fort Knox.
“It’s still an ongoing situation, and we are doing everything we can to exhaust all options for a resolution,” he said.
That resolution may have to wait for another few weeks. Fort Knox requested to be added to the Sept. 19 KHSAA Board of Control meeting agenda for the purpose of appealing the forfeit ruling.
Bylaw 22, Section 7 states “If a school fails to carry out its contract to play a regularly scheduled contest, the contest shall be forfeited to the offended school.” Schools usually sign two-year contracts that include game details and a contract buyout amount if a school chooses not to play the game as scheduled. The schools were in the first year of a two-year contract.
Because Todd County and Fort Knox have different bye weeks, it’s unlikely the schools will play if the KHSAA decides to overturn the forfeit and rule it a ‘no game’. Since a forfeit counts toward a team’s 10-game limit, they can’t add a game during their bye week unless the KHSAA changes course and rules it a ‘no game’. If that happens, Todd could schedule a game during their Oct. 25 bye week if they can find a school that is not playing that week and doesn’t have a full 10-game schedule. That is unlikely.
As it stands now, the Rebels are 3-0 and will host Hopkins County Central Friday at Rebel Stadium. Young says there are officials scheduled to referee the game.