Six days before Ohio State is slated to play Alabama for college football’s national championship, a COVID-19 outbreak may result in the Buckeyes seeking to delay the game.
According to AL.com, Ohio State, Alabama, the Big Ten, the SEC and College Football Playoff officials have had discussions about possibly postponing the game by a week, from January 11 to January 18.
The report says Ohio State could be without an entire position group because of COVID-19 testing and contact tracing. Similar issues have come up in the NFL, with the Broncos’ quarterbacks and the Saints’ running backs, and the NFL forced the teams to play their games anyway.
Ohio State played only five games in the regular season because of COVID-19 cancelations, and the Buckeyes were shorthanded in some of those games because some players had tested positive and others had been exposed to people who had. Ohio State coach Ryan Day said before his team’s semifinal win over Clemson that he still didn’t consider the Buckeyes to be at full strength.