Saturday’s game between No. 3 Ohio State and Maryland has been canceled due to an elevated number of COVID-19 cases within the Maryland football program. The Terrapins have paused all football team-related activities, the school announced Wednesday.
The game will not be rescheduled.
Eight Maryland players have tested positive for the coronavirus within the past seven days. The decision to pause the program’s activities and cancel Saturday’s game was made after consulting with school health officials and the Big Ten Conference.
“There is nothing more important than the health and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches and staff,” Maryland athletic director Damon Evans said. “We realize that this news is disappointing to all of the Maryland fans out there who were looking forward to the Terps taking on an outstanding Ohio State team, but the responsible thing for us to do is pause football activities, given the number of positive cases currently in our program.”
The game against undefeated Ohio State (3-0) was highly anticipated. After a disastrous start ot the season in a loss to Northwestern, Maryland (2-1) has turned its season around with back-to-back upset wins over Minnesota and Penn State.
The loss of a game could greatly impact Ohio State’s hopes to make the College Football Playoff this winter. With the game not made up that leaves both schools to play a maximum of seven games, pending any additional cancellations.
“We’re obviously extremely disappointed that we’ll be unable to host Ohio State this Saturday,” Maryland head coach Michael Locksley said. “It was an opportunity that our team was preparing for and excited about. However, we have and always will keep our players, coaches and staffs safety at the forefront of our decision making process. We’ll continue to operate as much as we can virtually as we monitor the situation in hopes of returning to play when it’s deemed safe.”
The Big Ten mandates teams play at least six conference games to qualify for the Conference Championship Game.
Ohio State’s next scheduled game is against No. 10 Indiana on Nov. 21. Maryland is scheduled to host Michigan State on the same date, depending on resumption of team activities.
