Last week, rumors started surfacing that Ohio State was battling issues with COVID-19 within the program again, much like it had in the B1G Championship Game on Dec. 19 when the Buckeyes took on Northwestern. There had been some concerns that the national championship would get delayed by one week.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Monday night’s showdown between Alabama and Ohio State is still on as planned, and should be an incredibly fun game to cap off the 2020 college football season.

Just because the game is being played doesn’t mean the Buckeyes are cleared from those COVID-19 concerns, though. SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum believes there’s still probably going to be an impact on some level.

“Yes. To what extent, I don’t know. Whether it matters or not, just let me point you towards the Cleveland Browns last night,” Finebaum said on WJOX’s The RoundTable. “Sometimes these things matter a lot, sometimes they don’t matter at all. I think it matters because that story was not manufactured out of the clear blue sky. …When you’re playing a team like Alabama, you don’t need to miss defensive linemen, which is the speculation. You don’t need to miss anyone. I think it could have an impact.”

Whether or not Ohio State will have impactful players sidelined is not known at this time, but it will likely be revealed closer to kickoff. Still, against a team like Alabama, having anyone out for the game could be a bad sign.

In the B1G Championship Game, the Buckeyes were without nearly two dozen players and still found a way to beat Northwestern 22-10. We’ll see how much COVID-19 impacts the Buckeyes this evening, if at all.