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Alberta Golden Bears win 1-0 instead of losing 71-3 thanks to Calgary Dinos' forfeit, a 69-point swing, one of the largest ever in a CIS or NCAA game

Austen Hartley (88) and the Calgary Dinos ran over Alberta 71-3 Sept. 5, but have since forfeited the game, turning it into a 1-0 loss.
Austen Hartley (88) and the Calgary Dinos ran over Alberta 71-3 Sept. 5, but have since forfeited the game, turning it into a 1-0 loss.

Forfeits over eligibility are anything but uncommonin Canadianuniversity football (and other sports), but it's rare to see one cause a 69-point swing. That's what happened with the University of Calgary Dinos, though. The Dinos beat the University of Alberta Golden Bears 71-3 on Sept. 5, but announced Monday that they would forfeit that win thanks to the participation of an ineligible player. That means the game now stands as a 1-0 win for the Golden Bears, an academic rouge if you will, a swing of 69 points from the on-field result that's one of the biggest in college sports history and is likely the biggest swing (NCAA or CIS) in over a decade. Here's a list of some other CIS football forfeits from that last period and how they compare:

Queen's Golden Gaels, 2014: Queen's forfeited two games over an ineligible player. One (Sept. 6 vs. Ottawa) was already a 37-30 loss; it remains that. One (Sept. 1 vs. Windsor) was a 39-30 win, which has been changed to a 1-0 loss. That's a 10-point swing.

Concordia Stingers and Bishop's Gaiters, 2012: Concordia forfeited four games over an ineligible player, two of which were already losses. Bishop's forfeited two games over an ineligible player. One (Sept. 15 vs Montreal) was already a 45-15 loss. The other (Sept. 1 vs. Concordia) was already forfeited by the Stingers, so it goes down as the rare 0-0 double forfeit. (Yes, both teams found a way to lose.) On the field, that one was 42-36 Concordia, so that's a six-point swing.. Concordia's other win-to-loss thanks to forfeit was a 41-20 victory over St. Francis Xavier on Sept. 15, so that's a 22-point swing.

UBC Thunderbirds, 2011:  UBC's entire season (6-2) was forfeited thanks to the participation of an ineligible player, and their two playoff games (a 27-22 win over Saskatchewan and a 62-13 loss to Calgary) were vacated. The biggest change here was their Oct. 22 game, again featuring the Golden Bears; it went from a 39-22 win for UBC to a 1-0 loss, an 18-point swing.

Laurier Golden Hawks, 2010: Laurier forfeited a 37-6 win over Toronto on Sept. 11 over an ineligible player (one only ineligible under a new rule, and only ineligible thanks to deferring until the fall). That's a 32-point swing.

Manitoba Bisons and Simon Fraser Clan, 2009: Manitoba forfeited five games and two wins thanks to an ineligible player who was suspended in 2001 for four years for unregulated substances and didn't realize that suspension took away four of his five years of eligibility. That one wound up altering the whole playoff picture at the last second. SFU only forfeited one game, a 41-7 Sept. 11 win over Manitoba, which was changed to a 0-0 double forfeit, a 38-point swing. The Bisons also forfeited a 36-10 Sept. 19 win over UBC, a 27-point swing, and a 20-13 Oct. 3 win over the University of Alberta, an eight-point swing. (Those Golden Bears, always benefiting from forfeits.)

There are no games listed as forfeits on the CIS Wikipedia season entries between 2004 and 2008, and 2004 is the oldest schedule available on the CIS website. It's not clear if those entries are comprehensive, but they do mention all the forfeits from 2009 on. In any case, Calgary's forfeit would appear to be at least the biggest CIS point swing in the last 11 years, and possibly longer.

There have been other big forfeits before, though, including notable postseason ones. The forthcoming Krown CIS Red Book mentions two 1997 Ottawa Gee-Gees playoff wins, 22-7 over Queen's in the Dunsmore Cup (conference final) and 44-37 over Waterloo in the Churchill Bowl (national semifinal) that were later changed to 1-0 losses thanks to an ineligible player. Ottawa would go on to lose that Vanier Cup 39-23 to UBC, so at least a Vanier wasn't forfeited. The 2001 Laval Rouge et Or also retroactively forfeited a Dunsmore Cup win where they beat McGill 42-14, but they lost 48-8 to Saint Mary's in the final Atlantic Bowl (national semifinal) that year. It's possible that Laval or Ottawa's in-season forfeits those years were more substantial than this, but without a full schedule from those seasons, we can't confirm that.

What about other leagues? Well, there are a long list of NCAA games forfeited or vacated (vacated means the winner gives up the victory, but the loser still keeps the loss and its score), with SportsReference listing 173 team seasons affected by those. Going through those individually would be a massive task. John Edwards found one that at least comes close, though, Penn State's vacation of a 67-7 win over Louisiana Tech in 2000 (as part of the Joe Paterno penalties). However, even if that was counted as a 1-0 forfeit rather than a vacated game, it would still be a 61-point swing, eight points smaller than what happened with Calgary. To beat this, we'd probably need a hugely lopsided NCAA game, and there haven't been any 100-point FBS-on-FBS contests since Houston 100, Tulsa 6 in 1968 (which wasn't vacated).

This 2011 article of the 26 biggest blowouts in the last decade only has three games more lopsided than Calgary-Alberta. There's 2003's Rockford 105, Trinity Bible 0, but that was Division III, and not vacated. There's also Georgia Southern 84, Johnson C. Smith 3, but that was FCS on Division II, and it wasn't vacated. There's one FBS on FBS one from 2010, Oregon 72, New Mexico 0; it also wasn't vacated. The list does have one game equally lopsided to Calgary-Alberta, and it's FBS on FBS (in conference, no less) USC 69, Washington State 0 from 2008, but although USC has had to vacate games, those were in earlier seasons. Penn State does appear on that list several times, including a 59-0 win over FIU in 2007 and a 62-7 win over Michigan State in 2002, and both of those games were vacated in the Paterno saga, but neither is as quite as big of a blowout as Calgary's. So, there's a good chance the Dinos' forfeit marked the biggest swing in college football from on-field result to recorded result in at least a decade, regardless of what side of the border you're on.