If the Big Ten plays football this fall -- whispers suggest the conference is bracing members for no season -- the annual Michigan-Ohio State could very well have a decidedly different feel to it. Temperature-wise in particular.
Every year for nearly eight decades, you could set your watch to the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry grudge match. When The Game was on, you knew it was November and the last game of the regular season. However, because of the coronavirus pandemic, Bill Rabinowitz of Columbus Dispatch is reporting that this year’s matchup will probably be played earlier in the season “as a hedge against the COVID-19 pandemic causing a cancellation in late November.”
From the Dispatch:If the game is scheduled in September or October and the coronavirus situation forces a postponement, it could then played at a later date.
The source stressed that no final decisions about scheduling have been made, and that the situation is fluid, but that moving the game is the most likely scenario at this point.
If that happens, it is unlikely that Ohio State would play Michigan in the season opener.
The last time Michigan and Ohio State didn’t end the regular season against one another? Way back in 1942.
July 9, the Big Ten announced that it will be going to a conference-only schedule for the 2020 college football season. It’s expected that the conference will announce its schedule at some point in early August.
In a letter sent to membership Thursday, elevenwarriors.com reported, the conference stressed that, if it feels fall sports, including football, can’t be safely contested, they could still be canceled.
“If we determine as a Conference that it is not prudent to compete in the fall of 2020, we will not do so, much like our decision in March 2020 to cancel the Men’s Basketball Tournament in Indianapolis,” the letter states. “Our final decision will be rooted in guidance from medical experts and in consultation with institutional leadership, student-athletes, coaches and appropriate federal, state, and local authorities.”