Michigan Football: Big Ten won’t allow rescheduled games in 2021-22

It’s a good thing that Michigan football has a high vaccination rate because the Big Ten won’t allow games to be rescheduled in 2021-22. 

The Michigan football season is now less than two weeks away and on Monday, the Big Ten Conference made an important announcement in regards to its COVID-19 policy for the 2021-22 sports seasons.

And following the lead of some other major conferences, as well as major sports leagues, the Big Ten Conference won’t allow games to be rescheduled because of COVID-19 issues, which could mean an outbreak of positive tests.

If a game can’t be played, it will be counted as a forfeit and the team that caused the game not to be played will be given a loss in the conference standings, which could be meaningful down the road. Here’s the rule if one team can’t participate due to COVID-19:

"“If a team is unable to participate in a scheduled Conference competition due to COVID-19 and as a result the competition is unable to occur on the calendar day on which it is scheduled, the competition shall be considered a forfeit by the team unable to participate and shall not be rescheduled.  In such case, the team unable to participate shall be assessed a “loss,” its opponent a “win,” and Conference standings shall be adjusted accordingly.”"

If both teams can’t play due to COVID-19, the game would be ruled a no contest. So for instance, Michigan’s game against Ohio State last season would have been ruled a forfeit in favor of the Buckeyes since the Wolverines had issues that prevented them from going to Columbus.

While this type of move was expected from the Big Ten conference, it’s still good to know what the parameters will be going into the season. It also means that getting players and coaches vaccinated is important, at least in terms of having the best chance to play all 12 games.

Where Michigan sits in Big Ten Power rankings

In other news on Monday, 247 sports released its preseason Big Ten power rankings and Michigan football wound up in sixth. Ohio State was first, followed by Wisconsin, Penn State, Indiana, and Iowa. Here’s what the article said about the Wolverines:

"“Jim Harbaugh knows he has to make this year count and that could lead to an interesting discussion if McNamara has some struggles because five-star QB recruit J.J. McCarthy is dripping with talent. Michigan has recruited very well. The talent is there. They just have to put it together… Stat you probably didn’t know: Michigan’s 2020 defense gave up more points per game (34.5) than any other Jim Harbaugh-coached team ever.”"

It’s hard to argue with Michigan football starting sixth overall in the league and fourth in the Big Ten East. The Wolverines have plenty to prove and we just won’t know how good the Wolverines are going to be until we see them on the field.