Indiana football pauses activities; Purdue game in doubt

The Big Ten might be losing a second game scheduled for this Saturday and, in the process, a potential opponent for the 5-0 Ohio State Buckeyes. 

Late Tuesday afternoon, the Indiana Hoosiers confirmed that they are temporarily pausing all football-related activities because of positive COVID-19 cases within the program. The status of Saturday's matchup between Indiana and the Purdue Boilermakers is unknown as of the posting of this piece. 

"The team did not practice Tuesday morning and all players and Tier I coaches and staff underwent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing," Indiana explained in its official statement. "The decision to pause was made by the IU Athletics Medical Advisory Group."

Earlier in the day, reports surfaced that Purdue canceled practice "to evaluate the results of recent COVID-19 testing." Before that, Ohio State's showdown with the rival Michigan Wolverines was scrapped because of COVID-19 issues affecting the Wolverines. Michigan hasn't played since a 27-17 loss to the Penn State Nittany Lions on Nov. 28. 

While the Buckeyes remained No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday evening, they are still short of the six-contest minimum required to compete in the Big Ten Conference title game on Dec. 19 per a league rule announced before the start of the season. It's possible, however, that Big Ten athletic directors could alter or eliminate that stipulation as early as Wednesday.