#Michigan cancels Maryland game with Ohio State worries ahead

Another Big Ten game was cancelled and now “The Game” is in jeopardy.

So is Ohio State’s run at a national championship.

A spike in COVID-19 cases within the Michigan football team pushed all football activities to virtual this week and led to Wednesday’s cancellation of the upcoming game against Maryland.

Michigan will not be on the practice field until Monday at the earliest. There is now concern that the annual rivalry game between Michigan and Ohio State – known as “The Game” – will not be played for the first time since 1917.

“The decision by our medical professionals to stop practices and cancel this Saturday’s game against Maryland was made with the health, safety and welfare of the student-athletes, coaches and staff as our utmost priority,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said in a statement. “We have seen an increase in the number of student-athletes unavailable to compete due to positive tests and associated contact tracing due to our most recent antigen and PCR testing results.”

If Michigan needs to cancel another game, No. 4-ranked Ohio State will not be eligible to compete in the Big Ten Championship Game because of a rule stating teams must play at least six games in order to be eligible. Ohio State is 4-0 and facing Michigan State this week.

If Ohio State is ineligible, the Big Ten East Division would be represented by Indiana, which is 5-1 with a loss to Ohio State. When compared to teams in other leagues that have played a more complete schedule, it would be difficult to justify including Ohio State in the four-team College Football Playoff with a 5-0 record but no conference championship.

That scenario is the nightmare for the Big Ten, which essentially backed off its original no-season in 2020 plan under public pressure to get Ohio State on the field and into the national title hunt.

ESPN college football Kirk Herbstreit – an Ohio State graduate – claimed Tuesday that Michigan could spite Ohio State by using COVID-19 to cancel the game and hurt their rival’s postseason chances. He later apologized, saying he had no evidence to support his claim. 

Ohio State has won 15 of the last 16 meetings.