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tOSU at Sparty, December 5th, Noon on ABC



MICHIGAN STATE

The Spartans made me a meme by association in 2013.

Reading that sentence probably took you back to the exact moment I'm referencing. Mark Dantonio and Michigan State stormed the Big Ten title game and handed Urban Meyer and Ohio State their first loss in 24 games — all while halting their chances of playing for the BCS National Championship.

Meyer was infamously photographed eating the saddest Papa John's pizza you've ever seen. Approximately 300 miles east in Canton, I was ordering a pizza myself to deal with the sad emotions while wrapping up my postgame coverage.



I always see myself in this picture of Meyer, and I hate both it and Michigan State for it.
 
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Nooner on ABC. Will be the third of four noon kicks in a row (Indiana, Illinois, MSU, Michigan).



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:banger:
 
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Ohio State Buckeyes not ruling out playing game vs. Michigan State Spartans

Ohio State officials aren't ruling out a return to the field next week after pausing team activities and canceling Saturday's game at Illinois after a rise in COVID-19 cases within the program.

The team, which was scheduled to fly to Illinois on Saturday morning for the noon ET game, announced the cancellation late Friday night. Team physician Dr. Jim Borchers on Saturday said No. 4 Ohio State, which "essentially had no cases of COVID-19" all season, initially saw an increase on Wednesday and exceeded the Big Ten's threshold for population positivity rate after Friday's results. Head coach Ryan Day is among those who tested positive for COVID-19.

Ohio State declined to reveal specific numbers or names about who tested positive, saying only that players, coaches and support staff in its 170-member Tier 1 congregant group all have been impacted. Athletic director Gene Smith on Saturday repeatedly cited the rise in COVID-19 cases in Columbus and surrounding Franklin County in Ohio. The decisions to cancel and pause activities were made within the university because Ohio State only exceeded one of the Big Ten's two positivity rate benchmarks that would have forced the program to stop and pause for at least seven days.

"We're making a decision not just [based] on the thresholds, but we're making a decision based upon what we see," Smith said. "We're seeing, in our particular case, it's kind of a community type of spread. We didn't see spikes in specific areas. So, could we have played? Sure. Was it the right thing to play? No."

Smith said Ohio State is implementing enhanced PCR testing to complement the Big Ten's daily antigen testing. The team will evaluate when it can return to activities in several days, and possibly make a decision on the Michigan State game. Day on Saturday said Ohio State likely would need to return to practice by Thursday and have one rigorous workout plus a walk-through Friday to be ready for the Michigan State contest.

Day said the team is now communicating and meeting through Zoom.

"The thing that we fear the most, every time those test results come back, you hold your breath every day to see what's going on and how you're team's doing, and here we are this week," Day said. "... We're hoping to get some of these tests back, get some good news there, and then put the focus towards Michigan State."

Borchers said there were no concerns until Wednesday, but it wasn't enough to make them hit the brakes. The team proceeded with practices this past Thursday and Friday because it had not reached a concerning threshold yet. Day said players practiced without helmets on both days, wore masks and did not have physical contact with one another to limit the potential of spread.

"I want to be clear we never reached a threshold where we couldn't participate or practice until [Friday] afternoon," Borchers said. "This is not something that was going on on Tuesday. This was something that happened later in the week."

It wasn't until the results from Friday's PCR testing that "it became very clear we needed to pause," Borchers said. He confirmed Ohio State exceeded 7.5% in its population positivity rate, defined by the Big Ten as the number of positive individuals divided by total population at risk. Ohio State has not yet exceeded the 5% team positivity rate (number of positive tests divided by total number of tests administered). If both numbers are reached, Ohio State would be forced to stop all activities for a minimum of seven days before reassessing.

According to Borchers, none of the individuals at Ohio State who have tested positive have required significant medical treatment. Day, 41, said he is resting comfortably but has "an extremely heavy heart."

Entire article: https://www.espn.com/college-footba...uling-playing-game-vs-michigan-state-spartans
 
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