Ohio State Buckeyes cancel Saturday’s football game vs. Illinois Fighting Illini due to COVID-19 cases

Ohio State has canceled Saturday’s football match-up at Illinois due to a COVID-19 episode inside the No. 4 Buckeyes’ program and has delayed all group related activities inconclusively after extra positive tests were uncovered Friday night, the school reported.

Ohio State athletic chief Gene Smith, college president Kristina M. Johnson and head group doctor Dr. Jim Borchers settled on the choices to drop the game and respite exercises in meeting with the Big Ten Conference.

The game was dropped only hours after Ohio State declared that mentor Ryan Day had tried positive for COVID-19 and was in separation.

“We have continued to experience an increase in positive tests over the course of this week,” Smith said in a statement Friday night. “The health, safety and well-being of our student-athlete is our main concern, and our decisions on their welfare will continue to be guided by our medical staff.”

The program will continue its group exercises when its clinical staff decides it is protected to do so dependent on conventions set up by the Big Ten Conference.

This is the second game Ohio State (4-0) has dropped this season, as the Buckeyes couldn’t play Nov. 14 at Maryland on account of COVID-19 inside the Terrapins’ program. All together for Ohio State to contend in the Big Ten title game, it needs to play – and win – both of its excess ordinary season games, on Dec. 5 at Michigan State and Dec. 12 at home versus rival Michigan.

In the event that the average number of Big Ten games falls under six, at that point groups must play no under two less gathering games than the normal number of Big Ten games played by all groups to be considered for the association title. The hero will be resolved in every division by its triumphant rate, except if there is an unequal timetable on account of the dropping of games.

The College Football Playoff has not set an edge for a base number of games that must be played to meet all requirements for an elimination round this year. On the off chance that Ohio State – or any CFP competitor – can’t play in its meeting title game on account of undoings, that doesn’t mean it would be killed from the CFP conversation, however it wouldn’t have the gathering title as one of the sudden death rounds the panel utilizes when groups are similar.

Early Friday evening, Ohio State had still intended to travel to Champaign, Illinois, on Saturday morning for its early afternoon ET game against the Illini. The school had affirmed “an increased number of positive tests this week for the coronavirus,” after another round of every day testing on Friday morning. Everybody related with the group – including mentors and care staff – at that point took polymerase chain response (PCR) tests on Friday evening, “out of an abundance of caution to ensure that everyone on the trip is confirmed negative for the coronavirus,” as per a news discharge.

The school declared the abrogation of the game after the extra testing. As indicated by the school, Ohio State has “consistently recorded nearly 0% positivity since Aug. 11.”