Ohio State head coach Ryan Day isn’t the only one unavailable for the No. 4 Buckeyes against the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday.
The Buckeyes listed 23 players as out in the pregame status report, including starting linebacker Tuf Borland and starting offensive linemen Thayer Munford, Josh Myers and Nicholas Petit-Frere.
While Day is out due to COVID-19, the Buckeyes don’t list reasons for players who are out so the extent of any spread is uncertain. It was required to be under 7.5 percent within the program due to Big Ten protocols.
Big Ten coaches who test positive for COVID-19 are required to be out for 10 days. That puts Day’s earliest possible return from isolation on Monday.
Several positive tests within the program caused the Buckeyes to cancel last week’s game at Illinois. The status of Saturday’s game wasn’t certain because of a positivity rate protocol the Big Ten instituted prior to the season.
If Ohio State (4-0) was at or above 7.5 percent within the program, the team would have been ineligible to play at Michigan State. The Buckeyes need to play six games to be eligible to play for the Big Ten championship.
Defensive line coach Larry Johnson will fill in for Day against the Spartans.
The Buckeyes are scheduled to close the Big Ten season on Dec. 12 against Michigan.
The Wolverines canceled their Saturday game against Maryland after 15 reported cases of COVID-19 in the program through Friday of this week, putting the season finale in jeopardy.