By canceling its trip to Ohio State this week, Michigan might have damaged the Buckeyes’ chances of making the Big Ten Championship Game and College Football Playoff. But Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel doesn’t want Ohio State to be punished simply because the Wolverines can’t play.
During his press conference on Tuesday afternoon following Michigan’s announcement that it would not play this week, Manuel said he believes he and his fellow Big Ten athletic directors should consider removing the six-game minimum requirement so that Ohio State is eligible to play for a conference title next week.
“I don’t believe that anybody – Ohio State, or any other team – should just be punished because of decisions we made by looking at eight games and saying we should play six ... because of what happens to our team affects them,” Manuel said. “So I would be open, and I think the conference would be open, to having a discussion about whether or not we should make adjustments, whether or not schedules should be adjusted, to get Ohio State to play enough games to six or to play in the championship game with five, but I don’t think we should just hunker down and say, ‘Well, we said six, so that’s gonna be it.’ I think a conversation deserves to happen.”
Manuel also indicated he believes Ohio State deserves an opportunity to play in the College Football Playoff if it wins out.
“I just want to make it clear: I think Ohio State is one of the top four teams in the country,” Manuel said. “Deserves the opportunity to be in the conversation about their success this season. And would be a great representative to the College Football Playoff if they are chosen.”
As for the decision not to play Ohio State on Saturday, Manuel said “it became really apparent to us all that no matter how much we wanted to play the game,” it was not going to be safe for the Wolverines to play the Buckeyes this week. Michigan had not been cleared to return to practice on Tuesday, and he said they wanted to make a decision on Tuesday so that Ohio State could potentially have the opportunity to line up another opponent.
“We had a trend with the number of positive tests continued to go up, even over the weekend, and so in the last seven days they have not slowed. We were not cleared to participate in practice by our medical staff, and we were looking at in terms of by the end of the week, much wouldn’t have changed, and we still don’t have a total grasp of this virus on our team,” Manuel said. “And so to afford Ohio State and the Big Ten Conference the ability to adjust where necessary, we felt it was best to talk to Kevin Warren and Gene Smith and let them know our decision today.
“We started this back in March with the goal to put the health and safety of our student-athletes, our coaches, our staff as the first priority. And as numbers continued to grow, we can’t ignore and put first how much we want to play this great game against Ohio State. We have to put their health and safety first, and until we have a good sense of that and control of that, there’s no reason why we should move forward knowing that we don’t have a good handle on the COVID cases on our team right now.”
Jim Harbaugh did not answer directly when asked whether he thought Ohio State should get the opportunity to play in next week’s Big Ten Championship Game, but he was adamant that the Wolverines weren’t looking for an excuse not to play.
“The players, to a man, wanted to play this game,” Harbaugh said. “This is a daily process, and we followed the daily decisions that are made, and we proceed with what’s in the best interest of our players and our staff.”
Darryl Conway, Michigan’s chief medical officer, said Tuesday that the Wolverines had not reached the Red/Red threshold that would have forced them to cancel Saturday’s game under Big Ten policy, but that there had been a “significant uptick” in COVID-19 cases within the program. Neither he nor Manuel provided a specific number of cases, but The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman reported Tuesday that Michigan would have been without approximately 45 players this weekend.
“The players, to a man, wanted to play this game.”– Jim Harbaugh on the Ohio State-Michigan cancellation
Given that, it’s far from certain that Michigan will even be healthy enough to play next week. That said, Manuel said Michigan would be open to the possibility of playing the Buckeyes next week if Ohio State was to be left out of the Big Ten Championship Game.
“We will make any adjustments from my standpoint that we need to make, so if it’s not and we make adjustments on our calendar and we play Ohio State the week of the 19th, from my perspective, that would be great,” Manuel said. “We will play whoever is going to be scheduled for us.”
Asked whether he anticipated any change in venue for next year’s edition of The Game, given that Michigan would now be on track to have back-to-back home games against Ohio State with next year’s game set to be played in Michigan Stadium, Manuel said there had been no discussions about that as of now.
