Ryan Day Would've Been in Favor of Scheduling a Replacement Opponent for Maryland

The Buckeyes knew it wasn't a possibility, given that they aren't the first team to be on the wrong end of a CoVID-induced cancellation this fall. But Ryan Day said this morning on the Dan Patrick Show that he would have been open to scheduling a game on Saturday in place of Maryland.

"Yeah, I would," said Day when asked if he would play a different team if given the chance. "Especially when it's hard to look your team in the eye and tell them they can't play when they've done everything you've asked them to do. I guess you chalk it up to 2020. I know it's not as easy as saying, 'Let's just go schedule a game,' there's a lot of implications and different things that have to go in place, so I totally respect that. But I certainly would be in favor of figuring out a way to get it done."

"I know it's not as easy as saying hey let's go schedule a game, there's a lot of implications and different things that go into play, but I would be in favor of trying to get it done. I also understand the complexity." @RyanDayTime on scheduling games outside the B1G pic.twitter.com/B8yNyqeUpB
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) November 12, 2020

Unfortunately, the Big Ten made it very clear they aren't open to teams within the conference scheduling games on the fly this year outside of the league. Nebraska's Week 2 game against Wisconsin was cancelled while the Badgers were dealing with a significant CoVID outbreak and the Huskers were prepared to play FCS opponent Chattanooga - which included paying for all of the testing to make sure the Mocs wouldn't pose a threat to the Huskers or any other Big Ten team. But the Big Ten said no, and that was that.

So the Buckeyes will have an unscheduled bye week this weekend.

As Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated pointed out on Twitter Thursday afternoon, there have been 370 college football games scheduled through November 11 and 313 of them have been played. The 57 games cancelled/postponed represents 15.4% of the total population this fall. Only six of those games have been made-up to date, while some others have been rescheduled.

"The health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes is our main concern,” Day said in a statement on Wednesday. “Obviously, we are disappointed at not being able to compete this week, but I am incredibly proud of our team and the way they have handled themselves throughout this entire pandemic. “We wish Maryland, their student-athletes and programs well as they battle through this issue.”

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