The Big Ten made Northwestern forfeit two conference games for the worst reason ever

Larry David is credited with establishing Jan. 7 as the last socially acceptable date on the calendar to wish another person Happy New Year.

His "Curb Your Enthusiasm" personage is lucky. Santa Monica was spared by the Palisades Fire that turned 2025 from a happy new year in Southern California to a nightmare when it ignited on — you guessed it, Jan. 7 — and wiped out an entire community in the process.

Even for those whose homes were spared, everyday life across Southern California was interrupted by whipping winds, horrendous air quality, and a firefighting system strained to contain and prevent the spread of fires to surrounding communities.

The Northwestern women's basketball team was scheduled to play two new Big Ten Conference foes in Southern California a few days after the Palisades and nearby Eaton fires started — UCLA on Jan. 12 and USC on Jan 15. Understandably, the team backed out of its commitment and offered an alternate location for the games.

The games were postponed instead. Then, on Wednesday, the Big Ten announced the games would not be replayed. Instead, Northwestern was forced to forfeit the two games.

The Wildcats are tied with Rutgers for 16th place in the conference standings, a half-game behind Purdue. The Big Ten takes 15 teams for its conference tournament, and the two forfeits won't further Northwestern's cause.

UCLA, whose campus is only a couple miles from the eventual eastern front of the Palisades fire, moved its Jan. 15 game against Penn State to the home arena of Long Beach State because of the disaster. USC, located a safer distance away from the fires, did not move any of its home games.

USC is 16-1 in conference play, UCLA 15-1. Northwestern is 2-15 after the forfeits and would likely be 2-15 if it had made the flight in spite of the air quality and looming uncertainty around evacuation orders in Los Angeles at the time.

The news of the forfeitures is news because Northwestern chose not to travel because of an obvious safety issue. If the health and safety of students was the animating priority when Northwestern decided to propose an alternate venue for the games, the Big Ten ostensibly disagreed with that choice of priorities.

In short: the conference's action might pass an ethical test, but it would fail the moral test in any civilized society. The Big Ten might at least benefit from being more transparent about its motives. How hard did it try to reschedule the games for an alternate venue? What protocols exist for games affected by natural disasters, if any, and what will be done to avoid a similar outcome in the future?

For those who were upset by the dissolution of the Pac-12 — whose conference leaders are based in California, and perhaps more sympathetic to the fallout from the local disasters — the Big Ten is once again in the news for the wrong reason.

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