By this I mean be optimistic.  By this I mean not read the writing on the wall. 

The Illinois game was not going to happen. Pausing team activities should have told us it was over.  Flying out the morning of was the final clue.  We should have known better. We didn't want to believe it.  

The Game  - Was never going to happen.  The Buckeyes put in the work to isolate their outbreak, only pause for one week, because they have so much to play for.  They were committed to only losing one game due to positives in the program.  What does that team up North have to play for?  Why would they put in the effort to get destroyed by the Buckeyes?  We should have known better.  Cancelling a Tuesday press conference, going from a plan of full practice to limited workouts were the final nails in the coffin, but we allowed ourselves to justify these things for having to do with Harbaugh's contract or it was a good sign they were having "limited" workouts.  

Now the Texas A&M and Tulsa scheduling talk, B1G Championship this week and Michigan in two weeks.....it's all a trap.  It's not happening.  Hopefully, we play a game this weekend, with someone, anyone.  But these grand dreams of playing outside the conference or scheduling the B1G Championship game for 5 days from now are just that, dreams, overly optimistic dreams, just like we convinced ourselves of during the last several weeks of playing Illinois and Michigan.  But we still want to convince ourselves otherwise. I am guilty of it myself, but it's time to be realistic.  The conference has let us down, and they will not all of a sudden reschedule the Championship game or allow a non-conference opponent to make up for it.  Time to accept it and move on, and hope for the best.