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Desmond Howard suggests Michigan State could cancel Ohio State game over Buckeyes’ virus concerns

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Another ESPN college football analyst is breaking out the conspiracy theories as it relates to Ohio State’s remaining two games.

Kirk Herbstreit made headlines on Tuesday night when said he thought Michigan would “wave the white flag” and back out of the matchup against Ohio State scheduled for Dec. 12. Herbie later apologized for that comment, though he’s still catching plenty of grief.

On Wednesday morning, the conspiracy theories continued, as fellow College GameDay analyst Desmond Howard suggest Saturday’s Michigan State-Ohio State game may not get played. With recent COVID-19 issues in Columbus, Howard believes the Spartans may tell the Buckeyes to turn around and head back to Ohio due to the increased number of positive tests.

“I wouldn’t be surprised now, if Ohio State gets on a plane, they get to East Lansing and, because of the number of positive tests a week ago, Michigan State’s medical staff is not comfortable with their team going out and playing this game because of the unknown that they’re trying to figure out with the positive test,” Howard said on ESPN’s Get Up. “And then Mel Tucker and that group says, ‘Uh, yeah, you guys may wanna go back to Columbus because we’re not comfortable playing this game.'”

Ohio State currently sits with a 4-0 record but needs to finish out the season against Michigan State and Michigan to qualify for the B1G Championship Game. If one of those games is canceled, the Buckeyes will not meet the minimum requirement to participate.

Last week, Ohio State canceled Saturday’s game against Illinois.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB