▶ Big Ten changes rule to make Ohio State football eligible for championship game./
Big Ten drops rule that requires teams to reach six games to qualify
The Big Ten Conference dropped its six-game minimum requirement for the league championship game Wednesday, clearing the way for No. 3 Ohio State to take on No. 15 Northwestern in another chance for the Buckeyes to burnish their playoff credentials.
The Buckeyes (5-0) will try for their fifth straight conference title when they face the Wildcats (5-1) on Dec. 19 in Indianapolis. Ohio State finished the regular season with only five games after Michigan had to pull out of Saturday ’s showdown because of COVID -19 issues.
The rule change had to be approved by the Big Ten Conference Administrators Council, which includes athletic directors, senior women’s administrators and presidents from all 14 schools.
The conference determined before the season that teams would have to play six of their eight scheduled games to qualify for the championship game. Ohio State — No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings and the conference’s only undefeated team — has missed three games because of issues with the pandemic.
The latest was the annual grudge match against Michigan, which canceled its trip to Columbus because of rising COVID -19 cases and players in quarantine. Falling a game short of the threshold set by the league, the Buckeyes would have been outside looking in.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day said he was “appreciative” that other conference schools voted for the revision.
ACC: There are five games in the Atlantic Coast Conference this weekend, all important to the teams playing but none involving No. 2 Notre Dame or No. 4 Clemson. The league gave the Fighting Irish and the Tigers the weekend off before they meet in the ACC Game of the Year, Part II, in Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 19 for the ACC title. But the 10 teams that are playing are focused on this week. No. 9 Miami and the 20th-ranked Tar Heels meet at North Carolina in a pivotal matchup that will determine bowl position. Virginia will visit Virginia Tech and renew a fierce rivalry that grew more intense a year ago when Bronco Mendenhall’s Cavaliers ended a 15-year losing streak in the series with a 39-30 victory. The rest of the games — Wake Forest at Louisville, Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech and Duke at Florida State — largely involve the bottom half of the ACC standings. LSU: Freshman tight Arik Gilbert, who entered this week leading all active Tigers in receiving, has decided to opt out for the remainder of the season. ... LSU is self-imposing a one-year ban on postseason play for this season as part an effort to cooperate with an NCAA probe into rules violations. Much of the NCAA’S investigation of LSU’S football program pre-dates the promotion of Ed Orgeron to head coach during the 2016 season and hiring of current athletic director Scott Woodward in 2019. Some of the more serious allegations involved LSU booster John Paul Funes, who is accused of paying a player’s father $180,000 for a “no-show job” between 2012 and 2017.
MAC: The Mid-american Conference declared No. 24 Buffalo as winner of the East Division title. The announcement came after the Bulls (4-0) appeared to clinch the title outright once their game against Ohio (2-1) last Saturday was canceled and declared a no-contest. That decision was made because the Bobcats’ roster was depleted due to COVID-19.
SMU: SMU (7-3) accepted an invitation to be in the Dec. 19 Frisco Bowl game.