Ohio State Buckeyes: Ryan Day asks why his team is still sidelined by Big Ten

Day, whose Buckeyes were ranked No. 2 in the preseason Associated Press poll, posed the question one day shy of a month since his team was sidelined by the Big Ten decision to postpone the season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

At the time, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren offered little in the way of specific reasons for the move by the conference’s presidents and chancellors aside from “uncertainty.”

Eight days later, Warren released a letter citing the rate of spread of the virus and a lack of available rapid testing among other reasons, but there has been little other communication from the conference in the past month.

While breakthroughs have since been announced regarding rapid testing, Ohio State is among campuses where a high number of cases of COVID-19 have been detected following students' return for fall semester.

“While I understand the Big Ten Conference’s decision to postpone the football season because of health and safety considerations, the communication of information from the Big Ten following the decision has been disappointing and often unclear,” Day wrote Thursday.

“However, we still have an opportunity to give our young men what they have worked so hard for: a chance to safety compete for a national championship this fall.”

With the SEC, ACC and Big 12 scheduled to begin play by the end of September, that would presumably require the Big Ten take the field within the next few weeks after that in order to be part of the College Football Playoff.

Reports have indicated an October start date has been considered along with Thanksgiving weekend or January, but publicly conference leadership has made no indication about when or if a change of plans is in the offing.

“I couldn’t possibly be prouder of how this team, our medical personnel, athletic director and president have stayed together and managed through this extremely difficult time with so many unanswered questions,” Day wrote. "The Big Ten medical subcommittee has done an excellent job of creating a safe pathway toward returning to play in mid-October.

“These young men and their parents have asked so many questions that I do not have an answer to, but the one that hurts the most is, ‘Why can these teams and players play and we can’t?’ Duke is playing Notre Dame and Clemson is playing Wake Forest this weekend. Our players want to know: Why can’t they play?”