An already shortened football season for the Buckeyes just got shorter, as Ohio State’s matchup with Illinois has been canceled due to a number of COVID-19 cases breaking out in the Buckeyes’ program.

Ohio State announced on Friday afternoon that head coach Ryan Day was one of several members of the program that had tested positive for COVID-19, but a program release said the Buckeyes’ game against Illinois was still on, pending another round of PCR tests for Ohio State players and coaches.

However, the results of those tests have yielded more positive tests, and the contest scheduled for noon in Champaign, Illinois, will no longer be played on Saturday.

As a result, Ohio State has paused all team-related activities.

“We have continued to experience an increase in positive tests over the course of this week,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said in the release. “The health, safety and well-being of our student-athlete is our main concern, and our decisions on their welfare will continue to be guided by our medical staff.”

The cancellation marks the second in three weeks for the Buckeyes, as their Nov. 14 contest with Maryland was called off on account of a virus outbreak among the Terrapins, which forced the program to pause all team activities.

The only confirmed COVID-19 issue to plague Ohio State in the first few weeks was a false positive test from sixth-year linebacker Justin Hilliard ahead of the Buckeyes’ Oct. 31 matchup with Penn State, which was subsequently proven to be negative with a follow-up PCR test. However, Hilliard was still not allowed to play in the game due to a Big Ten policy that has since been modified.

Ohio State is scheduled to play Michigan State next week, and the release said team activities will resume "when its medical staff determines it is safe to do so based on protocols established by the Big Ten Conference."