Perhaps the biggest storyline of COVID cancelations in the Big Ten was Ohio State’s hopes of making the College Football Playoff. With the Ohio State-Michigan called off, the 5-0 Buckeyes were looking at being ineligible for the Big Ten Championship Game. ESPN reported Wednesday that the conference is changing its policy to allow OSU to play in the conference title game despite not playing in six regular-season games.

The conference championship game is thought to be important to Ohio State’s chances of making the College Football Playoff. Despite having played only 5 games, Ohio State is No. 4 in the CFP selection committee’s rankings, ahead of Texas A&M (7-1) and Florida (8-1).

It’s worth noting that the Big Ten champion has only made the CFP field of four once in the last four seasons (2016-19). Ohio State was picked as a final four team in 2016 despite Penn State winning the Big Ten conference title. In 2017 and ’18, OSU was the B1G champion and left out of the final four. The Buckeyes made the field of four as Big Ten champions last season.