Breaking News: Ohio State vs. Maryland canceled due to COIVD

Ohio State will not be playing Maryland this weekend due to too many COVID cases within the Maryland program.

The Ohio State football program has done an excellent job of keeping their players and staff COVID-free so far this season. No one has contracted the virus even going back into the offseason. Even so, they can’t control what other programs do with their COVID protocols.

Now they have to deal with the consequences of other programs not doing their part. Their game this Saturday against Maryland has been canceled due to a number of cases being detected. According to Maryland, eight players have tested positive over the last seven days.

Even though eight isn’t a significant amount, Maryland must also hold out players who have had close contact with those players. Because of that, they wouldn’t have enough players to field a competitive team against the Buckeyes and have elected to cancel the game.

This one hurts for Ohio State. It hurts because now they have less of a margin for error in getting into the Big Ten Championship game. They can now only have one other game canceled. This was also going to be a helpful tune-up before facing Indiana next week.

The one positive thing about this is that it keeps the Buckeyes safe and healthy going into next week. They shouldn’t have any positive tests which could have arisen from contact with Maryland players had the game been played. It gives them an extra week to prepare for IU.

Indiana might be the toughest team the Buckeyes face in the regular season. They will certainly use this time to make sure they are completely prepared for the Hoosiers. They don’t have anything else to do. This is just a big bummer for not just Ohio State fans, but all of college football.

All the Buckeyes can do is stay diligent in what they are doing and keep forging ahead.