For the first time since 1917, the Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes will not meet on the football field, after the game had to be canceled due to an increased number of positive COVID cases within the U-M program. Michigan will now miss two straight games, with last week's matchup against Maryland also having been canceled for the same reason.

"The prevalence of COVID on our team and the impact of COVID on our team is simply too great to allow for the safe return of full practice and full activity," said Dr. Sami Rifat, U-M athletics' medical director.

Michigan's positive cases did not hit the Big Ten's 'red/red' threshold to force a shutdown — which is when the test positivity rate (number of positive tests divided by total number of tests administered) is over five percent AND the population positivity rate (number of positive individuals divided by total population at risk) is over 7.5 percent over a seven-day rolling average. However, athletic director Warde Manuel said the positive tests "have not slowed" and "we still don’t have a total grasp of this virus on our team." Sources also told The Wolverine that Michigan might've had less than 40 scholarship players available if the game was played.

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"We’ve had an uptick in cases, and we are not in ‘red/red,’ which is the Big Ten’s threshold for when the Big Ten shuts it down," said chief medical officer Darryl Conway. "But that’s what I’ll say: We are not in red/red, but we have had a significant number and an uptick of cases in the last week or so."

The number of positive cases was not disclosed by the athletic department.

Michigan football has mitigated any sort of major spread of positive cases up until last week. Conway added that he does not believe the outbreak has stemmed from the protocols U-M has in place, and he credits the staff and players for being diligent since they returned to the facilities over the summer.

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"Probably the biggest challenge, which our team has done great at, is they’ve had to get up at 6:30 in the morning to come to the complex to be tested," Conway said. "And for anybody that’s been tested more than once, that’s a daily grind just to get up every single morning to come have something stuck up your nose, and the anxiety of waiting for the results.

"But they’ve been true champions with that. I can say that we have not had any student athlete or coach miss a test — and that’s every day since September 30. I don’t really think that the outbreaks have had anything to do with the testing; I think it’s just been that kids have been exposed at all different times, and every single person is different.

"This virus affects every single person differently, as to when the virus acts on the body and shows up as a positive. To me, that’s also contributed to some of the outbreaks. I don’t think it has anything to do with the testing."

Despite state of Michigan government orders and partial lockdowns, cases in the state have continued to rise. Rafit said he believes the spread at U-M has more to do with that than anything.

"I feel overall that the Big Ten testing program has gone very well and has been well implemented across the conference," Rafit said. "I really think this really reflects the significant uptick in COVID activity in our communities.

"As you know, those numbers are increasing across the state and the country and the world, and we don’t live in bubbles. I believe that this is just simply a reflection of the increased activity in our local community and the state."

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