After Ohio State cancellation, Michigan AD says Big Ten should revisit its minimum game policy
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel doesn’t want his team’s inability to play Ohio State to affect the Buckeyes’ Big Ten title chances.
Michigan said Tuesday that it was unable to play Ohio State on Saturday because of COVID-19 cases in the program. The cancellation was Ohio State’s third of the season. The Big Ten said before it started its pandemic-postponed season that any team with three or more cancellations would be ineligible for the conference title game.
No. 4 Ohio State is 5-0. Two of its three canceled games have been because opponents were unable to play.
“We made decisions months ago now about six out of eight games not knowing where this pandemic would take us,” Manuel said Tuesday afternoon. “We were hoping, all hoping to play all eight games.”
Manuel then made it clear that those decisions from when the Big Ten announced that its teams would play eight games in eight weeks should be revisited.
“So I would be open and I think the conference would be open to having a discussion about whether or not we should make adjustments, whether or not the schedule should be adjusted, to get Ohio State to play enough games,” Manuel said. “Either six or to play in the championship game with five. But I don’t think we should just hunker down and say, ‘Well we said six so that’s going to be it.’”
The cancellation means that Michigan and Ohio State won’t play for the first time since 1917.
Michigan’s second straight cancellation
The Wolverines had to cancel its game against Maryland on Dec. 5 because of COVID-19 too. When that cancellation happened, it became clear that the Ohio State game could be in danger.
Michigan said in its statement announcing the Ohio State cancellation that the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the team made playing the game impossible.
Ohio State also had a game against Maryland canceled this season. The Terrapins were unable to play the Buckeyes earlier this year because of COVID-19 cases. Ohio State also canceled its game against Illinois on Nov. 28 because of COVID-19 positives. The Buckeyes said they made the decision not to play Illinois as sort of a pre-emptive measure to avoid having further cancellations.
The Big Ten said Tuesday afternoon that it would “continue to collaborate” with its member schools “to determine Big Ten championship game participation requirements as well as tiebreakers.”
No. 12 Indiana will represent the Big Ten East in the conference championship game if Ohio State is ineligible for the title. Northwestern has clinched the West division.
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