Ohio State shouldn’t get an out. They should play Alabama football on Monday.
The National Championship is just days away, but there is a chance it might be pushed back. Due to COVID-19 cases, Ohio State and the Big Ten are hoping to postpone their title fight against Alabama football.
This has been a wild season, so anything is possible. While the CFP have said they plan for the game to be played on Monday, there is still a possibility for a last-minute postponement. While it is possible, the college football powers need to stop catering to the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Let’s recap what has happened so far this season. The Big Ten started their season significantly later than the SEC, so Ohio State already had an 8-game schedule as opposed to Alabama’s 10. With that schedule came the rule that no games would be rescheduled and a team had to play at least six games to make it to the Big Ten Conference Championship. No contingencies were made for the reasoning of a cancelation. Even if a team had no outbreaks but still missed three games, they were supposed to be out of contention.
Due to many COVID outbreaks, Ohio State fell short of that mark. Despite this, the Big Ten changed the rule and allowed Ohio State to get in. They then won a close Big Ten Championship and punched their ticket to the CFP after only playing in 6 games.
Shortly after this, the Big Ten shortened their quarantine minimums. This would have helped plenty of teams play more games during the regular season, but they waited until the postseason to implement the changes. Thankfully for Ohio State, this made more players available in the Sugar Bowl. The Buckeyes went on to beat the Tigers in that very game.
Let’s compare this with Alabama football‘s path to the National Championship. Alabama played twice as many regular-season games as Ohio State. No game was postponed or canceled because of the Tide despite there being COVID-related absences from players and staff. Nick Saban himself missed the Iron Bowl, but that game was still played at its regularly-scheduled time.
Due to playing a whole season, Alabama has naturally seen more injuries. Their star center is out for the year, and Jaylen Waddle has missed over half of the season with an ankle injury.
Because of all of this, Ohio State is already at an advantage. They’re fresher. There is less tape on them. They avoided multiple chances to be eliminated from CFP contention due to canceled games. The rules have been bent and twisted to favor the Buckeyes all season. That needs to stop now.
Think about the nightmare of postponing the National Championship. It would mess with TV schedules, team travel and preparation. Media organizations would have to alter their plans to be available to cover the game. Even fans would have to get new hotel reservations and flights.
This shows that it would be too much to postpone the National Championship. If Ohio State has enough bodies to play the game, they should be forced to play. They have been catered to for long enough, and it should not happen at the expense of Alabama football.