Ross Bjork (left) was introduced as Ohio State’s next athletic director by president Ted Carter (right) at a press conference at Covelli Center in Columbus on Jan. 17, 2024. Credit: Nathan Baird (via TNS)
Ross Bjork, who will succeed Gene Smith as Ohio State’s next athletic director come July 1, has been involved in more than academic success, fundraising and stadium construction.
Try recruiting scandals, ill-informed contract extensions and a “lack of institutional control.”
This doesn’t mean he won’t advance Ohio State athletics over his time in Columbus, but it should be said that the Buckeye program is one of the top in the country, and following Smith will be no small task.
Bjork’s hire became official Jan. 16 — pending approval from the board of trustees in February. His contract’s base salary is set at $1.65 million annually through June 30, 2029, but with yearly media appearances and opportunities, fringe benefits and travel expenses, his annual salary will lie just above $2 million, according to his employment agreement.
In 2010, Bjork got his first start as an athletic director at Western Kentucky. During his two-year tenure in Bowling Green, Kentucky as the then-youngest athletic director, he was able to provide raises for several coaches, most notably its former head football coach Willie Taggart. Additionally, Bjork won at least four Sun Belt championships in men’s basketball, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s tennis.
His fault? Former assistant defensive coach Lance Guidry, under his watch, was arrested for driving under the influence while in Baton Rouge for a road game in 2011. Bjork never suspended Guidry.
But because of the positive aspects over his reign, he upgraded to a Southeastern Conference school — Ole Miss — where he resided from 2012-19.
While a Rebel, Bjork doubled their athletics revenue from $57 to $117 million, according to Ole Miss’ website, and opened or completed fundraising for more than six stadium constructions and renovations. In addition, over the 2015-16 academic year Ole Miss student-athletes reached a cumulative GPA of over 3.0 for the first time in program history.
However, for the good he does, the bad has no problem following. One name: Hugh Freeze, Ole Miss’ head football coach from 2012-16.
Freeze and the football program were under investigation by the NCAA in January 2016 for several recruiting violations, spanning from alleged help from coaches on ACT scores to unethical benefits for recruits, according to USA Today, which the NCAA called a “ lack of institutional control.”
During their investigation, USA Today reported that the NCAA discovered at least eight more severe violations involving recruits, assistant coaches and current players, all allegedly under Freeze and Bjork’s knowledge.
In an attempt to save their reputations and the Rebels program, the pair told reporters and recruits that everything they’d been accused of was collateral from former football coach Houston Nutt. However, Nutt filed a lawsuit for “defamation of character” in the summer of 2017 to clear his name.
Shortly thereafter, Ole Miss and Nutt came together to resolve the lawsuit, but another discovery against Freeze was made. He had been making calls to a female escort service for over 2.5 years while under contract with Ole Miss. According to ESPN, the calls spanned less than two minutes each.
On July 20, 2017, Freeze resigned as head coach, though Bjork claimed he would have been terminated if he didn’t voluntarily step down, and the Rebels faced a two-year postseason ban as well as a monetary decrease in scholarships and new restrictions placed on already in-place recruitment regulations.
“We went on facts — you can say whatever you want about perception,” Bjork said at his press conference Jan. 17 at the Covelli Center. “There’s a lot of outside forces that infiltrated, but as far as the head coach, we knew exactly what was happening from a compliance standpoint and then he had a personal failure and as soon as we found out about it, we took action.”
Despite the many tribulations and chaos at Ole Miss over Bjork’s tenure, he upgraded again: College Station, Texas — home of the Texas A&M Aggies.
Bjork was hired at A&M in 2019 and will stay until July 1. As an Aggie, he made seven instrumental coaching hires, including men’s basketball head coach Buzz Williams.
Additionally, he oversaw new state-of-the-art athletic facilities in Aggieland and was heavily involved in passing Texas House Bill 2804, which says Texas universities “may identify, create, facilitate, or otherwise assist with opportunities for a currently enrolled student-athlete to earn compensation from a third party,” according to The Eagle.
But one thing he’ll always be remembered for is the November 2023 firing of head football coach Jimbo Fisher, after Fisher violated the COVID-19 recruiting period in both football and men’s basketball and made “impermissible contact” with recruits, according to 12th Man.
Fisher, who was hired in 2017 on a 10-year, $75 million contract, was ultimately fired amid the 2023 season for underperforming. From 2020 on, his team’s records steadily declined. However, Fisher’s contract was extended by Bjork and the Texas A&M board through 2031 and he was offered $94.95 million.
Due to his football program’s struggles and 6-4 start to the season at the time of his firing, Bjork made the ultimate decision to relieve Fisher of his duties, generating the most expensive buyout of a coach in the history of college athletics at $77.6 million, or $7.2 million per year, according to ESPN.
Ohio State President Ted Carter Jr. backed Bjork at their press conference Jan. 17 following the announcement of his hiring.
“I pressed that question pretty hard, I had a lot of questions about that,” Carter said. “Ross has owned it — as has the [A&M] institution. Remember, these things just don’t happen in a vacuum. Even though he is the athletics director, he wasn’t the original hiring authority. Yes, he did give an extension, that happens a lot.”
Two weeks after Fisher was fired, Mark Stoops — head coach of Kentucky — was supposed to succeed him, but instead, posted on X, formerly Twitter, around 1 a.m. Nov. 26, 2023, that he no longer planned on leaving the Wildcats, undermining Bjork’s authority and doing so out in the open.
According to the Texas Tribune, just one day later, the Aggies hired former Duke head coach Mike Elko on a six-year, annual base salary of a $7 million contract.
Meanwhile, Ohio State was looking for its own person. In turn, Bjork upgraded for a third time.
According to Ohio State’s annual fiscal report, which was released Tuesday, the athletic department’s revenue increased 11% from 2021-22 to 2022-23. Last year, its total of $251.6 million — which was No. 1 in the NCAA — was outshined by 2023’s $279.5 million.
Some sort of trouble seems to follow Bjork wherever he goes, but with Ohio State’s reputation and immense revenue generation, his faults will be tested come July 1.
