Indiana and Purdue may play the Old Oaken Bucket football game after all.
Saturday’s regular-season finale between the longtime rivals was canceled due to a rising number of positive COVID-19 tests among both programs.
Indiana, which moved up to No. 7 in the national polls Sunday, was supposed to play Iowa this Saturday as part of the Big Ten cross-over weekend. That’s when teams from each Big Ten division would play the team that finishes in the same place. So, the Hoosiers, who finished second in the East, were slated to play the Hawkeyes, who was second in the West.
But the league called an audible Sunday.
Now the Hoosiers and Boilermakers are scheduled to play Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. The two schools have played every year since 1920. The series dates back to 1891.
Of course, Friday night’s game depends on how well each program handles the number of cases of the coronavirus. Typically, teams that have had to pause activities due to COVID-19 have had to do so for multiple weeks.
Ohio State and Northwestern will meet in the Big Ten championship game Saturday at noon. Also on Saturday, Minnesota plays at Wisconsin, Illinois plays at Penn State, Michigan plays at Iowa and Michigan State plays at Maryland. Nebraska plays at Rutgers on Friday.
Also this weekend, Indiana announced defensive coordinator Kane Wommack had been hired as the new head coach at South Alabama. Wommack was in his second season as the defensive coordinator at Indiana. The Hoosier defense leads the Big Ten in sacks and interceptions.
