Michigan Wolverines football and the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes are scheduled to play for the 116th time in history. The two programs have met every season since 1918, but this year's game is in doubt due to COVID concerns within the Michigan program, after the Wolverines were forced to miss last week's game against Maryland.

Michigan paused all in-person activities last week and did not return to the facilities until Monday, when the team went through "limited workouts." Though Tuesday's media availability with head coach Jim Harbaugh and players was postponed, the program announced the workouts would continue Tuesday.

The Wolverine's Chris Balas has reported that the game is highly unlikely to be played, due to the nature of Michigan's COVID outbreak (his Tuesday morning update can be found here). While that's the case, Ohio State is operating as if the game will kickoff at noon Saturday.

"It’s not any different, until we hear otherwise," Day said at his weekly press conference Tuesday. "You can’t get distracted by anything other than just being focused on the game. As of right now, it’s going, it’s coming — they’re practicing. Everything we’re hearing is we’re playing the game, so we’ve got to get prepared and get ready to roll, play well on Saturday and take the next step."

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Day said Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith has been communicating with U-M throughout the week and providing Day with updates.

"Just that the game is on and they’re practicing," Day said when asked what Michigan has been saying. "So we’re just going to move forward until we hear otherwise."

Ohio State missed its Nov. 28 game against Illinois, choosing to cancel the game due to its own COVID concerns. The Buckeyes became the first Big Ten team to cancel a game this year and not miss two straight weeks, however, with the team beating Michigan State, 52-12, despite having 23 players out due to positive tests and contact tracing.

Day did not say specifically how many players would be back this week, should the game be played, but he did say the Big Ten is considering relenting on its rule of players that test positive having to sit out 21 days of competition.

Michigan is a 30-point underdog this weekend at some sportsbooks, but Day insisted the Buckeyes aren't overlooking their arch rival.

"As you know in this rivalry game, you throw the records out," Day said. "There’s no rules. We’ve got to go play this game.

"This is a team who has really good talent, really good coaches. Maybe they haven’t played their best ball this year yet, either. It hasn’t been a very long season. We’re midway through this thing, where typically we have 11 games to go upon leading into this game. It’s like playing them at mid-year. You just don’t know.

"They’ve flashed, they’ve done some really good things, so we’ve got to be ready to play. We’ve got to show up, we’ve got to play physical. We have to play better than we have to beat a team like these guys. This is a postseason game to me, this is a playoff game right here."

In the summer, it was reported that Harbaugh called Day out on a Zoom call between conference coaches for a possible violation of having staff members coaching players on the field while it wasn't allowed by the Big Ten at that time. Day then reportedly went back and told his team that it is going to "hang 100" on Michigan.

When asked about the incident Tuesday, Day deflected, saying that it was in the past and he's only focused on this week's game.

"I mean, that was all back in the summer. And now it’s all about right now. It’s about focusing on what’s important.

"There’s so many things that come in and distractions and things that happen, when you get into this type of game. But for us, we just have to focus on getting better and getting better at practice. There’s going to be a lot of things that are said here and there, but we just have to find a way to win the game — and that’s all that matters."

If Michigan is not able to play Saturday, which looks like the likely scenario, Ohio State would not be eligible to play in the Big Ten Championship game (if the current rules remain in place), despite holding an undefeated record at 5-0.

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