As we all know, 2020 might as well be the year of unpredictability.
There is almost no use at all in trying to guess what may happen within the next couple weeks, days or even hours.
Just as soon as you feel somewhat confident in an outcome, it’s likely to be flipped completely upside down.
Not only have I accepted this as the reality, but I’m actually rooting for one specific prediction to be dashed. When a COVID-19 outbreak at Maryland caused the football team to cancel its game against Ohio State about a month ago, Buckeye fans were immediately worried.
Regardless of how good OSU is this year, the season seems to be hinged on one requirement: they have to play six of their eight scheduled games to be eligible to play in the Big Ten Championship game. That meant two more cancellations would leave OSU out of the conference championship and potentially the College Football Playoffs overall.
I half-jokingly told others in the newsroom that Michigan was likely to cancel The Game just to spite us and keep the Buckeyes from playing in the conference championship.
After OSU canceled the Illinois game, though, the prospect of this wasn’t quite as funny anymore. Let me be clear that I fully support canceling any games that put the health of players, coaches or their families at risk. I think it would be reckless to play a football game knowing your players could infect others, no matter what is at stake.
With that said, any reason for a cancellation could be That Team Up North’s saving grace this season.
I would like to believe that beyond the rivalry, each coach has enough dignity to refrain from intentionally trashing the other school’s season – especially when their team doesn’t seem to have the capacity to do it on the field.
In a year like this, we can all just look beyond the game of football and act with kindness, right?
Nope, that isn’t how Ohio State-Michigan works.
And Jim Harbaugh definitely doesn’t strike me as that kind of guy.
Once I learned that Harbaugh encourages his players not to eat chicken because it’s a “nervous bird,” I realized that pretty much no strategy to win is off the table for him.
The opportunity to avoid the humiliation of losing to Ohio State again definitely seems like one that would be hard for him to pass up.
But the chance to spoil the Buckeyes’ hopes while he’s at it has to be impossible to miss.
Now, with Michigan’s game against Maryland canceled and Ohio State “short-staffed” against Michigan State this weekend, the future of the OSU season is hanging in the balance.
Like any good person, I’m praying that both the Buckeyes and Wolverines recover from COVID-19 without any complications.
But like any good Buckeyes fan, I’m really hoping that happens by Dec. 12.
-Kayleen Petrovia is a reporter for the Journal-Tribune.