The Horseshoe, like everything else in college sports, has changed over the years. The next possible change could be naming rights. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Ross Bjork wants clearly defined rules and a bigger football playoff, but he says positioning Ohio State for success is his No. 1 concern.
Columbus, OH — Ohio State director of athletics Ross Bjork spoke to regulars on the Buckeyes beat Thursday at the Jack Nicklaus Museum.
As far as anyone could remember, the last Ohio State athletics press event held there was March 8, 2011, when Gene Smith, Bjork’s predecessor, spoke along with football coach Jim Tressel and university President E. Gordon Gee.
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The topic was Tressel’s traipsing of NCAA rules, which is ironic because the biggest question about NCAA regulations these days is if they are even there to walk over anymore.
Unlike Texas Tech, a certain school to the north or any given SEC school currently in need of a lawsuit to get its quarterback on the field, Bjork seems to want clear rules to follow, but he also acknowledged getting such standards is easier said than done.
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“Federal, codified, legally defensible structure is what we’re all after,” Bjork said. “If there’s a way to codify that, if there’s a way to allow us, again, to invest as we see fit, to me, that’s preferable to us, but there needs to be certainty, right? There needs to be certainty around what that is.”
You probably remember Gee stole the show 15 years ago.
Upon being asked if Tressel’s troubles — The Vest failed to disclose NCAA violations committed by players on his team, a violation of his contract as well — could result in his being relieved of his duties as head coach of the Buckeyes, Gee replied not only in the negative but added — in true Gee fashion — “I’m just hopeful the coach doesn’t dismiss me.”
Perhaps the timing could have been better, but the line was clearly a joke.
Not only that, it was a good one because the quip relied ever so slightly on the facts of the matter, or maybe more accurately on the perception of fact vs. reality. The head coach of the Ohio State football team isn’t really more powerful than the university president … but it still kind of feels like it. Thinking he is also happens to be sort of amusing, at least as long as it’s not really true.
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Outsiders — particularly national writers — were not amused at the time and disingenuously pretended Gee was serious, Tressel was untouchable and football had run amuck at Ohio State.
None of those things ended up being true, of course, but it’s still amazing to compare those days to these we’re living through now.
The college athletics complex has been on fire for several years, a conflagration stemming from earthquakes in the form of multiple court rulings that tore away the NCAA’s ability to enforce many of its most important rules (sometimes for better and sometimes for worse).
Ross Bjork spoke to the media Thursday at the Jack Nicklaus Museum in Columbus about a range of topics.
The upheaval was well underway by the time Bjork was introduced as Smith’s successor in January 2024, and he spoke about wanting to be part of the change for the better for the future of college athletics.
The future was again on the docket this week, most notably in terms of a bill in the Senate that would restore some of the NCAA’s clout, at least until it’s taken down by a lawsuit, too.
While he expressed some positive and negative views of that legislation, Bjork also seemed to acknowledge there is only so much that can be done while those issues are — or more likely not — ironed out in Washington, D.C.
Of course, there are plenty of things in Columbus for him to work on, too, and he covered a few of those Thursday.
They include selling Ohio Stadium naming rights (not likely, perhaps) and jersey patches (coming soon), which teams get to take part in sharing TV revenue (still football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and women’s volleyball) and what facilities are due for a facelift (the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and the Schottenstein Center).
Jake Diebler was endorsed Thursday by Ross Bjork, who said his men’s basketball coach has the resources to build on last season’s NCAA Tournament appearance.
Bjork endorsed men’s basketball coach Jake Diebler, whose team made the NCAA Tournament last season, and women’s volleyball coach Jen Flynn Oldenburg, whose team has posted three straight losing seasons since making the Elite Eight in 2022, but stated both should have the resources in place now to inprove.
Bjork stated unequivocally he expects college sports to remain college sports in the most basic sense, but he did not guarantee much else would be familiar to fans when this round of changes is complete.
“We will go to class. We’ll develop young people, and we’ll play games,” Bjork said.
He also confirmed he shares the Big Ten’s collective (and incorrect) view expanding the College Football Playoff would be a good idea, complete with corporate TV person jargon to back it up.
“How do we maximize a better window for high leverage games?” Bjork wondered first before suggesting that turning a meaningless bowl game into a first-round playoff contest (between teams that are by definition today not playoff teams) could magically make it more valuable without any negative consequences on the regular season.
“You gotta look at the holistic approach,” he claimed. “From putting your players in the best position, to the economics, to the calendar, to maximizing TV windows.”
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Of course, if Ohio State and various other power programs just left the NCAA for a long-rumored “Super League,” there might be no need for a 24-team playoff.
Bjork did not completely rule that — or further Big Ten expansion — out, but in doing so cast a distinction between himself and Smith.
While the man who led the department from 2005-24 often let the Big Ten’s fortunes go before Ohio State’s (think conference expansion, the explosion of road night games and noon home games, among other things), Bjork indicated that is not how he sees things.
Ohio State football doesn’t need an expanded playoff to pursue more national championships. But Ross Bjork still agrees with the 24-team format the Big Ten bosses are fully behind.
Under Bjork, Ohio State is likely to go along with most of the Big Ten’s machinations, but there is apparently some limit to what the Buckeyes will tolerate as the system lurches forward into an unknown future no one seems particularly excited to see.
“We wake up every day thinking about that: What is best for Ohio State?” Bjork said. “But then how does that layer into partnership? How does that layer into the national?
“Look, we need the Big Ten to be healthy, right? We do. We need the Big Ten to be healthy, knowing that we’re really at the forefront of that, but we need a viable conference that we can rely on. But if we’re forced to do something else, and you gotta make decisions, then you have to make those decisions, whatever that might be.”
Such equivocations were common Thursday, but there was one thing that seemed guaranteed: The cost of nothing will be going down.
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After mentioning the Buckeyes have enjoyed record years for fundraising, Bjork set the expectation for the athletics department budget to eventually reach $500 million (it was over $320 million last year).
From where will that money come?
Some from television, sure, and perhaps the bloating of the CFP, but you can also look a lot closer to home — both the home of the Buckeyes via sponsorships and the home of you via donations.
In another twist, the athletics department announced this week Tressel is will be joining the football Ring of Honor.
The honor is well-deserved, of course. Like Woody Hayes and Paul Brown — whose names are already on the C-deck facade in Ohio Stadium — Tressel led the Buckeyes to a national championship.
Maybe more importantly, he also flipped the rivalry with Michigan back in the Buckeyes’ favor and won the Big Ten seven times in 10 years.
With the neighborhood again secured, Ohio State was in great position to go from juggernaut to super power under Urban Meyer and then Ryan Day — despite how Tressel’s tenure ended.
So what does that all tell us?
At the end of the day, it’s not all that clear anymore who might fire who — or who might put out all those fires in college athletics — but at least the games go on, one way or another.
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