Buckeye Bits: The Game has been cancelled

It is a sad day out here in Buckeye Nation. For the first time since 1917, Ohio State will not play Michigan as a result of a COVID-19 outbreak inside the Wolverines’ program. The Buckeyes, who were a whopping 30-point favorite in this year’s edition of The Game, will now need to hope the Big Ten will either change the rules for conference title game eligibility — as the team would now fall under the six-game minimum — or help move things around to get them an opponent this weekend.

With the big cancellation dominating the headlines, lets jump right into the rest of today’s Ohio State news and notes.

From around Land-Grant Holy Land...

From around the gridiron...

After it seemed there was some positive momentum towards Ohio State getting to play TTUN this upcoming weekend, those dreams were shattered on Tuesday afternoon.

Almost immediately following the announcement, people from all over the college football world starting flooding to Twitter to talk about what this means for the Buckeyes. The general consensus is that it would be in the Big Ten’s best interest to either relax their six-game minimum rule for the conference title game, or do everything in its power to get Ohio State a new opponent this weekend.

Obviously, the players were not too happy about the cancellation.

So what are Ohio State’s options now? Well, it would be fun and interesting if the B1G allows OSU to take on a non-conference opponent — especially if that opponent were Texas A&M or Coastal Carolina. However, the Big Ten hasn't exactly been a fan of doing things the interesting or fun way this season, so that seems unlikely. Vegas would've liked the Buckeyes by double-digits either way.

There are a number of options at play within the Big Ten. You could move up the B1G title game and allow Ohio State to play Northwestern this weekend while then having The Game take place over championship weekend. There is also the option to move around the schedule this week with other teams dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks, with both Purdue and Minnesota dealing with potential cancellations. Either way, we are putting a lot of faith in everyones favorite commissioner Kevin Warren.

Regardless of what decision the Big Ten ultimately comes to, I would imagine we will see things work out in Ohio State’s favor. The conference understands it is in their best interest to get the Buckeyes into the B1G title game and give it the best chance at representation in the College Football Playoff — something that benefits the entire Big Ten as a whole.

Before everything went haywire on Tuesday, Ohio State’s players and coaches met virtually with the media to discuss what they though would be the Michigan game. Even with that now off the schedule, there were still a few important takeaways from today’s press conference.

This sentiment from Justin Fields still applies regardless of the season.

As does all of this.

Even if Ohio State doesn’t get a game this weekend, it’s good to know that Wyatt Davis will not have to miss any time after leaving the MSU game with an apparent injury.

Kerry Coombs spoke a bit about the defense, and had some good things to say about Ronnie Hickman, who filled in admirably for Josh Proctor against the Spartans.

He also lauded the work of Baron Browning, who slid over to the Mike linebacker spot with Tuf Borland out. Justin Hilliard and Dallas Gant both got reps at Browning’s usual position, and the pair both made some really nice plays.

Ryan Day, now back from isolation, spoke on Tuesday as well, discussing the possibility that the Big Ten walks back some of its restrictions in terms of how long a player has to sit out after testing positive.

Obviously, he, like everyone else, thinks the six-game rule must be looked at hard.

He also didn’t deny his desire to hang 100 on the Wolverines, which now unfortunately won't happen.

Wrapping up the busy day of football news, Brian Hartline has been nominated for the Broyles Award. One of 56 nominees, the award goes annually to the nation’s best assistant coach.

From around the hardwood...

In the meantime, we still have basketball to look forward to tonight.

It is still unclear whether Musa Jallow or Seth Towns will play tonight. Jallow played a little in the team’s first game of the year but hasn’t seen any action since, and Towns has yet to make his Ohio State debut.

And finally...

Guess it’s time to reset the clocks :(