Ohio State Football: Michigan could get punishment this week
By Ryan Stano
The Ohio State football team has a night game to prepare for this week against Michigan State. They are still the number-one team in the country. Yet, both the Buckeyes and the Spartans will be paying close attention to the news this week regarding the sign-stealing scandal at Michigan.
Now that Michigan has been sent a notice of allegations, they have 48 hours to respond. They were sent those allegations on Monday, so they have until Wednesday to respond. That means that there could be a punishment levied by the Big Ten as soon as Thursday.
There were erroneous reports that the Ohio State football program was involved in turning in Michigan, but those have proven to be false. Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports let everyone know that Ryan Day and Ohio State had no part in this according to the NCAA’s investigation.
So, what happens now? We wait. There is a distinct possibility that Tony Pettiti decides to ban Michigan from the Big Ten Championship. Of course, Michigan has said that they will fight any punishments at all in court and will try to get an injunction to lift the punishments until the end of the season.
As far as Ohio State is concerned right now, none of this matters. If they beat Michigan at the end of the year, Michigan won’t be able to play in the Big Ten Championship anyway. It would also keep them out of the College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes have to just keep winning.
Beating Michigan State on Saturday night is a good way to prepare themselves for The Game. Michigan has a tough game of its own at Penn State. They could lose that game and find themselves in a big hole for postseason play anyway.
We will definitely update you the minute that a possible punishment comes down.