PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rhode Island’s forfeit of Saturday’s game at Connecticut is a first in the 50-year history of the Yankee Conference and may be the only one of its kind in NCAA history, officials said Monday.

URI President Robert Carothers announced last week that the Rams would forfeit the game as punishment against URI players who beat up three fraternity brothers.

Rick Campbell, a statistician at NCAA headquarters in Overland Park, Kan., said he knows of no other forfeit in NCAA history similar to URI’s.

Forfeits generally occur after a game is played and the NCAA declares as ineligible a player or players who participated, he said.

“I can’t remember one like this,” Campbell said. “We do have cancellations for all kinds of reasons, like hurricanes.”

URI definitely is the first school in Yankee Conference history to forfeit a game, league spokesman Pat McCarthy said.

When Rhode Island announced the forfeit the move was applauded by many as a strong response to wanton violence. The assumption was UConn would get a victory to move to 4-3. URI was expected to fall to 3-4.

Not so fast, said the NCAA, which declared the game a “no contest.”

“It’s treated as is the game never existed,” McCarthy said. “Nobody wins, nobody loses.”

Though it’s a longshot, UConn officials are concerned the NCAA’s ruling could hurt the team.

If UConn wins the rest of its games and finished 7-3, it could be edged out of a Division I-AA playoff spot by an 8-3 team, Athletic Department spokesman Kyle Muncy said.

“We’re a long way from that, but that’s among our concerns,” he said.

Also, because the game would have been played at Connecticut, the Huskies stand to lose $150,000 in revenues generated by a crowd expected at around 13,000, Muncy said.

The game was to have been the Huskies’ “Youth Day,” an annual event that includes clinics and reduced ticket prices for children.

“It’s usually one of our better-drawing games,” Muncy said.