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The Big Ten threw together a schedule for “Champions Week” that was as scatterbrained as its plans to return this season were. Now, one of its “marquee” games could be in jeopardy.
Chris Balas of The Wolverine — who has been all over the COVID-19 outbreak within the program over the last few weeks — reported on Tuesday afternoon that Saturday night’s tilt between the Michigan Wolverines and Iowa Hawkeyes is in jeopardy due to concerns about the virus.
The Wolverines returned to team workouts late last week before getting back on the practice field on Sunday and Monday, albeit with extremely limited numbers. Jim Harbaugh would not update the status of his team during his Monday press conference and said that all of our questions would be answered when they took the field on Saturday.
It appears that is in serious jeopardy of taking place.
Reports over the weekend suggested that Michigan would have been without as many as 40 players for last Saturday’s scheduled game in Columbus with COVID-19 positives, those sitting out due to contact tracing and injuries creating that cluster. It seems more within the program have tested positive this week.
Michigan has been planning to play with the above-mentioned practices and two days of media with players and coaches so far this week, but we might be right back to where we were the last two weeks. Harbaugh and Manuel have said they will sit down to hash out a new contract at season’s end, which appears might be coming sooner than scheduled.