Michigan Cancels Dec. 5 Game Against Maryland, Pauses Team Activities Due To Coronavirus Outbreak

Ohio State’s annual rivalry game with Michigan could be in jeopardy after an increase of positive coronavirus tests has forced the Wolverines to pause team activities. Michigan’s game against Maryland, which was scheduled for this Saturday, has also been cancelled and the Wolverines won’t resume practices until at least Monday. 

“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,” 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 COVID-19 tests and associated contact tracing due to our most recent antigen and PCR testing results.”

If Michigan is unable to play against Ohio State, it would drop the Buckeyes below the number of games needed to qualify for the Big Ten Championship Game. That is, unless Ohio State is able to schedule a replacement game in its place.

The Big Ten does allow teams to schedule a new game against an opponent if their game is cancelled due to a coronavirus outbreak within their scheduled opponent’s program provided they aren’t dealing with an outbreak themselves. The new game simply has to be scheduled by 12 p.m. CT the Wednesday of that week.

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