Don’t blink or you will miss the latest happening with the Big Ten schedule as there are two scheduled weeks left in the regular season and then of course the final week that will not only have a championship game for the league title but also six other games to give every team the opportunity to play nine scheduled games.

But as we know, getting to nine is not realistic for every team and with Ohio State already sitting with two cancellations along the way, another cancellation, either this week or next week would keep Ohio State below the mandated six-game threshold to get to a league championship game and at best would deprive Ohio State a chance to compete for a Big Ten crown, and at worst could open a door to keep Ohio State out of the College Football Playoff field.

News came out of Ann Arbor (Mich.) today that the Wolverines would not be playing their scheduled game against Maryland this week as COVID positives have plagued the Wolverines’ program and if you listen to some that cover the Michigan program, next week’s game against Ohio State seems to be in jeopardy.

The most skeptical of people would say that Michigan is going to slow-walk things just to keep Ohio State out of the mix, especially in light of the rumored “hang a hundred on them” comments that were rumored to come out of Ryan Day’s mouth before the start of the season. There is reason to be skeptical that anyone would look to dodge a game, but the Buckeyes certainly would be an overwhelming favorite in that game and not playing this game could torpedo Ohio State’s season goals with two cancels already in the book.

Now, this is all moot if Ohio State is not able to play its game against Michigan State this weekend, so nobody wants to get ahead of themselves. But ever-vigilant Ohio State fans are worried that a fix could be in.

Wisconsin Director of Athletics, Barry Alvarez, spoke to the Detroit News earlier on Wednesday and was asked directly about these types of scenarios, at least in the instance where Ohio State could not get to the necessary six-games needed to get into the league title game.

“I would think that if something would happen to Ohio State and they’d have to cancel another game, that’s something that we’ve got to revisit,” Alvarez told the Detroit News. “They’re sitting up there still ranked No. 4. Our league can’t keep them from having the opportunity if they have a chance to be in the (CFP) finals.”

Remember, the Big Ten made a declaration after cancelling the season “not to revisit” playing a fall season, only to reverse course once outcry reached a certain level and it appeared that almost everyone else in the sport was going to play.

Those decisions, much like the 21-day “return to play” after a positive diagnosis rule were made on a COP/C (Council of Presidents and Chancellors) decision. This six-game minimum rule is something that was put in place by Athletic Directors and would not need to be part of the COP/C process.

“Yeah, we meet weekly,” Alvarez continued. “Those are things we discuss. We may make some adjustments on that last week. That’s sort of a flexible week of scheduling. But those are things we talk about and certainly you’ve got to consider, or reconsider.”

Ohio State remained at No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings this week, despite not playing a game after the Buckeyes had to cancel their game against Illinois.

Any sort of minimum number of games is not written into the CFP bylaws, but the committee tasked with picking the best four teams is well aware of who is playing who and how many and it would be in the best interest of Ohio State to get to six or seven games.

“Yeah, the release that there's no minimum requirement is the Management Committee. Then as we got together as a Selection Committee, did not want to put a box around a specific number,” CFP Selection Chairman Gary Barta said on Tuesday night.

A chance to play Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship Game would check off some boxes but so would getting to play either Wisconsin or Iowa in that 9th week. But if Ohio State were to miss out on an opportunity along the way to get to five or six games due to cancellations, it throws things into a lot of chaos, which has been the norm this year.

“If you play a highly ranked team at any time in the season, obviously we pay a lot of attention to that,” Barta continued. “If you have two highly ranked teams playing each other, that's a variable, a measurement, a game that makes for good evaluation. The other thing that you know, I think, is that one of our criteria, one of our tiebreakers, is conference championships. Those are two separate variables, both of which are really important.”