No. 3 Ohio Stateás game at Illinois on Saturday has been canceled because the Buckeyes have had a spike of COVID-19 cases this week, leaving the the Big Tenás best team precariously close to being ineligible to play for the conference title.

The cancelation Friday night came about seven hours after Ohio State announced coach Ryan Day tested positive and wouldnát travel with the team to Champaign, Illinois.

The team did not fly to Illinois as scheduled Friday night so additional COVID-19 testing could be conducted in Columbus, Ohio. The revised plan was to fly up Saturday morning for a noon ET kickoff.

After returning additional positive tests, Ohio State announced the game was called. The school did not reveal how many members of the program had tested positive as has been the schoolás policy all year.

Ohio State has paused all activities for the football team.

âWe have continued to experience an increase in positive tests over the course of this week,ã Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said in a statement. âThe health, safety and well-being of our student-athlete is our main concern, and our decisions on their welfare will continue to be guided by our medical staff.ã

The Buckeyes (4-0) already have had one Big Ten game canceled because of an outbreak at Maryland and have three left on the schedule, including at Illinois.

Big Ten rules state a team needs to play at least six game to be eligible to play for the conference championship, unless the average number of games played throughout the league is below six. In that case, teams would be eligible to play in the conference title game as long as they are within two of the average.

The Big Ten started its season the weekend of Oct. 24 and scheduled no open dates for makeups in its eight-week, regular-season schedule.

No. 18 Wisconsin already has lost three games after Minnesota canceled earlier this week because of a COVID-19 outbreak. That will leave the Badgers, the Big Ten West favorites, with only five regular-season games.

Day’s positive tests means the Nos. 1 and 3 teams in the country would be playing without their coaches Saturday.

Earlier this week, Alabama coach Nick Saban tested positive and displayed mild symptoms. Saban will miss the Crimson Tide’s Iron Bowl against Auburn.

Day is the 19th major-college football coach this year to publicly acknowledge testing positive for the virus. Among the others to miss games were Purdue’s Jeff Brohm, Florida State’s Mike Norvell and Arkansas’ Sam Pittman.

After having to reschedule two games this week because of COVID-19 issues, the Southeastern Conference announced a series of scheduling moves to make up games on Dec. 5 that had been previously postponed, including Alabama at LSU.

The Tide and Tigers were scheduled to play on Nov. 14, but LSU could not because of a lack of players available due to COVID-19.

Arkansas at Missouri will also be made up on Dec. 5. The Razorbacks were forced to postponed their game with the Tigers this week and Missouri instead was scheduled to play a makeup game with Vanderbilt.

Alabama at Arkansas, Mississippi at LSU and Missouri at Mississippi State still need to be rescheduled.

Alabama at Arkansas could be played on Dec. 12, the week before the SEC championship game.

LSU already has a game with Florida scheduled for Dec. 12, but it could play Ole Miss on the day of the SEC championship game, which the conference is using to make up regular-season games not involving the division winners.

Across college football, 14 games were postponed or canceled this week.