Ross Bjork certainly has had a busy fall, then winter, this academic year Obviously, there’s the massive kerfuffle that rocked the football team, the football coaching staff, and everything related to the cash cow of the university’s athletic department. Followed, of course, by one of the greatest runs in Ohio State football history. Prior to the debacle against the Wolverines, however, Bjork sent out a state of the athletic department note to all Ohio State fans. He mentioned one key detail that should be endlessly fascinating to fans of all the Olympic sports. Some 91 scholarships are set to be added across the Buckeye sports spectrum. I had a whole spiel about how 20 scholarships would be utilized by football, but it sounds as though that’s not the case. If so, we’re talking about a complete sea change in the landscape of Ohio State athletics. The impact on lacrosse could, potentially, be immeasurable.

Currently, men’s lacrosse utilizes 12.6 scholarships to fund the education of a roster of 48. Coach Myers, for good or ill, has been militant about not putting any player on a full ride. All players, to my knowledge, get SOME money, though it can be as little as $5,000. With out of state tuition being the norm on this roster, that’s not exactly a massive outlay. This is at the point of 1/8 of a scholarship. If you’re able to give out 2 more scholarships, however, that’s adding some serious coin to a program that runs a deficit on a regular basis. Especially as other programs around the country are seriously worried about their funding, Ohio State is apparently going all in on its athletic teams.

Theoretically adding 2 or 3 scholarships to the men’s lacrosse pool, leaving aside NIL, would just be a massive step up for the Buckeyes in getting quality talent to matriculate to Columbus. Everyone who is a Buckeye fan throws out the “you win with people” quote in a variety of contexts, but this move quite literally embodies that notion.

IF the staff is aware of the number of scholarships they’ll be getting in the future, it would make a lot of sense for the 2026 recruiting year that just kicked off. The latest class has seen Ohio State get more top 100 talent committed in one cycle than it has in literally half a decade or more. There are currently 6 top 100 commits in the Inside Lacrosse rankings pledged to the Buckeyes. That makes sense if there’s suddenly more money available to cover the cost of tuition.

And this is only if we assume the additional scholarships will be divided evenly. I can certainly see a scenario where certain teams get more scholarships than others. If men’s lacrosse gets 3 or 4 of those 91 scholarships, then the Buckeyes will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come. That’s just by virtue of being able to divide up more money amongst a static, known roster of players. The use of NIL for in-state players would just increase that force multiplying effect exponentially. Theoretically, at least.

Using 15.6 or 16.6 scholarships on out of state players, while paying Ohio players from NIL funding, would make the Buckeyes nigh on to unstoppable from a personnel standpoint.

Is that reasonable? Perhaps. Is it likely? Probably not, barring a sudden influx of interest in the Ohio State lacrosse programs from the alumni network and fanbase. I'll be honest, that’s really, really doubtful to ever happen, given the fact that this website has the most active, knowledgeable (no thanks to me) commentariat on Buckeye lacrosse. There are tons of fans of other lacrosse programs, but talking about Ohio State online is like screaming at passing clouds.

You’re just yelling into an uncaring void, freaking out your neighbors. Again, this website aside. The rare bits of conversation you’ll find are generally buried amongst football takes. That’s not a bad thing, but it isn’t going to translate to NIL donor dollars, either.

Realistically, I’d say Ohio State is looking at a maximum of two additional scholarships for this particular program. That’s not an insignificant investment.

It’s another $80,000 worth of scholarship money to be doled out amongst players, potentially. Athletic departments across the country are going to have to downsize sports, as they’re already draining financial resources from the university proper to fund football and basketball, the only sports that make any money. Ohio State is advancing against that tide, adding a massive number of scholarships as one of the few self-sufficient athletics departments in the nation,

Something to be very grateful for as we'll watch schools like Rutgers and Southern Miss drop entire sports to try to keep up.

Even more important for the future of Buckeye lacrosse, above and beyond more scholarships, is the upcoming 48-player limit that the NCAA will install as part of the House settlement (should it be approved). That’s just MASSIVE. And, likely, a reason the 2026 recruiting class has been such a different one for Ohio State.

So many more talented players are going to be available to programs that hadn’t been able to recruit them for one reason or another. Notre Dame carried 60 or more players on its roster after Covid for several seasons. Others have been well above 50 on a regular basis, especially blue blood schools. This roster cap will install much more parity into the game, and allow programs like Ohio State to have access to talent that likely would have gone elsewhere.

On a side note, I saw a Columbus Dispatch article stating that this year the team has 56 players on the men’s lacrosse roster. I physically counted the roster posted on the website, and found 45. I’m unsure where the Dispatch got their number from, because that’s a 24% increase of the roster size-over publicly available information. The Dispatch story was highlighting how many spots would be lost from current Buckeye teams as a result of the new settlement, but this seems fishy
at best.

Similar to this latest class of football recruits, we’re going to see big time players go to a lot of unexpected places. Including Columbus. It’s an exciting time, and hopefully we’ll see many, many sunny days ahead for the Scarlet and Gray.

Ultimately, a lot of the impact we’re going to see on the program from Ross Bjork’s scholarship additions won’t be apparent until the actual scholarship assignments are revealed. I have no doubts that there will be additions to the lacrosse programs’ pools. Until we know the full scale, any analysis is speculative at best.

As you’re all aware, that’s my specialty, for good and ill. Once that breakdown drops, we’ll go even more in depth on what could possibly happen in future days. Until then, I'll be dreaming of 24 scholarships and unlimited 5-stars rolling into Columbus.

Season’s 2 weeks away. I can’t wait.

Go Bucks!