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CFP Championship Still On Schedule As OSU Deals With COVID Issues

Ohio State AD Gene Smith said that his program plans to play as scheduled on MondayGETTY IMAGES

CFP Exec Dir Bill Hancock said that the Ohio State-Alabama National Championship "remains on schedule for Monday in Miami," according to Heather Dinich of ESPN.com. This comes after sources said that there "have been discussions about postponing the game because of COVID-19 issues within Ohio State's program." The CFP last week pegged Jan. 18 as a "potential makeup date for the national title game." Alabama officials and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said that they are "committed to playing on Monday." OSU AD Gene Smith said that his program "plans to play as scheduled." Alabama AD Greg Byrne tweeted he and Smith have had "multiple conversations," and "both schools are focused on playing" on Monday. Dinich noted prior to the season, the CFP management committee "implemented protocols for its postseason games," determining that an institution "may postpone a game only if it has fewer than 53 roster players available to begin the game." The CFP's thresholds "differ from those of the Big Ten" (ESPN.com, 1/5).

LITTLE TRANSPARENCY: In N.Y., Witz & Blinder note the championship game may be as "tenuous as many matchups have been this season," some of which have been "canceled just hours before kickoff." OSU and Alabama have been two of the "least transparent schools to play football this fall, neither releasing any substantive data about the number of positive cases within their football teams." Both coaches, OSU's Ryan Day and Alabama's Nick Saban, have "missed games after testing positive." OSU missed three games due to COVID disruptions (N.Y. TIMES, 1/6).

DON'T DELAY: YAHOO SPORTS' Dan Wetzel wrote the virus "will do what it will do, of course," so this "could snowball" on OSU. That said, whatever the situation is at OSU, the national title game "should be staged next Monday or, if a team can’t safely field a squad, it should be forfeited by that team." Wetzel: "Is that a brutally bad and disappointing end to the season? Of course. ... If you choose to stage a season during a pandemic, then you choose to stage a season during a pandemic" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/5).

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