Saturday’s Big Ten Conference college football game between Maryland and Michigan has been canceled due to COVID-19 cases within the Wolverines football program. Michigan made the official announcement Wednesday afternoon.
“The decision by our medical professionals to stop practices and cancel this Saturday’s game against Maryland was made with the health, safety and welfare of the student-athletes, coaches and staff as our utmost priority,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said in a statement. “We have seen an increase in the number of student-athletes unavailable to compete due to positive tests and associated contact tracing due to our most recent antigen and PCR testing results.”
Michigan paused all team activities on Monday out of “abundance of caution.” At least one player tested positive before last week’s game against Penn State. Several players were held out of that game following presumptive positive tests while the team awaited confirmation from PCR test results.
The team held virtual meetings on Tuesday before canceling the game Wednesday. The earliest the Wolverines can resume practice is Monday Dec. 7.
This is Maryland’s third canceled game of the season. The Terrapins canceled their Nov. 14 game against Ohio State and Nov. 21 game against Michigan State after 23 players and eight staffers, including head coach Mike Locksley, contracted the coronavirus. Now a third game is canceled due to Michigan’s COVID-19 issues.
Maryland (2-2) has two games remaining on the schedule. They’re slated to host Rutgers on Dec. 12 followed by the Big Ten divisional crossover game on Dec. 19.
The uncertainty surrounding Michigan puts their Dec. 12 “Big Game” clash against Ohio State in jeopardy. That could be significant for the Buckeyes’ chances for the Big Ten Championship Game. Ohio State has already had two games canceled this season and a third would put the team behind the Big Ten’s threshold of six games to qualify for the Dec. 19 conference championship game.
