Michigan Football: Ohio State debacle leaves plenty to question

With Michigan Football unable to field a team due to the COVID-19 pandemic for what would be Saturday’s annual rivalry game, it leaves both the Big Ten and Ohio State in a serious predicament.

Saturday’s rivalry classic with the Buckeyes is the second straight game that Michigan Football has been forced to cancel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. First off, let’s hope that everyone remains safe and can completely recover. Also, let’s stop this nonsense about Michigan ‘ducking’ the Ohio State game. It’s simply not true. If the experts deemed it safe enough, Michigan would take the field Saturday afternoon, even if it meant losing the game 70-0.

The Big Ten is partly to blame for this late-season blunder it’s put Ohio State and the conference itself in, for that matter. It’s a shame that the conferences’ headliner will likely not take place in 2020 even though it’s been an extremely lopsided rivalry over the last decade-plus.

Let’s not overlook the fact that it was the Big Ten Conference that rushed out to cancel their season before any of the others. It’s one thing to rush out becoming a pioneer trying to lead all of college football in a movement to cancel the season; it’s also unfortunate the Big Ten, after reversing that notion, didn’t start the season at the same time as all of the other conferences.

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When the Big Ten finally did get underway, most other teams in the country had already played three or four football games. The late start leaves Ohio State with a 5-0 overall record, one game short of having an opportunity to play for the Big Ten title and the National Championship unless the Big Ten bends the rules allowing the Buckeyes to compete for the Big Ten title where a victory will surely launch them into the final four.

The Big Ten defiantly wants to be represented in the college football playoff, but will the often stingy conference be willing to bend the rules? Perhaps the Buckeyes will be able to find a last-minute opponent for this upcoming weekend, and with a victory, they’d close the regular season with the six games needed to enter the contest?

There are a few other games that have been canceled or postponed that were originally scheduled to take place this upcoming weekend. Maybe Ohio State will find a replacement for Michigan Football. Both Texas A&M and Cincinnati’s Saturday games have been canceled due to the pandemic. The Bearcats final regular-season game was supposed to be against Tulsa, but would they be interested in doing their in-state competitor a solid only to risk their 8-0 perfect record? Unlikely.

Michigan Football currently has their mouth full trying to figure out what they want to do with head coach Jim Harbaugh after a lackluster 2020 performance. Let’s not chastise the school for not being healthy enough to compete Saturday after being forced to miss last weekend’s game with Minnesota while trying to play college football in December amid a pandemic.

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If Michigan Football and Ohio State Football fail to play a rescheduled game in 2020, it will be the first time the two schools didn’t square off since 1917.

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