In a handful of months, Ross Bjork will take over as Ohio State's athletic director.
Wednesday gave him his first chance to address the public about his visions and strategies for Ohio State athletics.
Outgoing athletic director Gene Smith opened the press conference by discussing his gratitude for Ohio State and his full confidence in Bjork to take over as athletic director.
Ohio State President Ted Carter took the stage next and stated that Carter's experience both as an athlete, serving in leadership roles and handling the wild world of NIL qualified him for the position.
Lastly, Bjork addressed the crowd in the Covelli Center on his vision for the program. A man with Ohio ties as his mother's family is from the state, he views his responsibilities as athletic director as winning at the highest level, developing coaches, cultivating a culture and fundraising, among other things.
Ted Carter
- Carter has been "deeply involved" in the search for Ohio State's new athletic director since he arrived at Ohio State on Jan. 1.
- When evaluating the criteria important to him as athletic director, Carter said Bjork's leadership qualities and experience in athletics made him a clear choice. "We had good candidates ... but Ross was a clear winner in that discussion."
- Carter feels that Bjork is the right man to carry forward the successes that Smith has had. "We are unique. Thirty-six D-1 programs ... there's a responsibility as this landscape is changing to take care of that. ... I know that Ross is going to carry on with that legacy."
- Another thing that made Bjork a prime candidate was his prestige with the Aggies, Carter said. "There's no doubt in my mind that Ross would have had a long career in the SEC."
- On his opinion of what the NCAA should do in restructuring: "I agree with Ross that the time is coming very quickly. ... There's too much of a difference (between the top schools and others). ... We are a large, powerful organization within the D-I organization, we should have a say. ... (Bjork) knows the landscape as well as anybody."
- On the importance of a connection to Ohio in the search: "Not a requirement, it was a plus. ... This is an incredible state. (Me and my wife) have never felt more welcome."
- Trepidations Bjork has been through "A calm sea never produced a good sailor. ... He'll bring that here. ... If we have to make tough decisions, whenever and however that will be, it won't just be the athletic director making it."
- Getting aligned on big-picture items with the head football and basketball coach will be of paramount importance. "It's really important. I kind of liken it to being in a three-legged race, it's the first few steps you have to get exactly right."
- Carter would like to keep all of Ohio State's varsity sports in place. "We're 36 Division 1 sports and that's how I'm intending to stay. Can that change in the future? Of course. ... We're gonna have to think about revenue strings. But I've been around the block, I do not want to cut sports at all."
- On who makes decisions in the five transitional months: "There will be a very clear line of delineation that Gene Smith is the athletic director at the Ohio State University until June 30th. ... I'm looking forward to having them both here as leaders."
Ross Bjork
- On the pressures of being Ohio State's athletic director: "You understand that, the magnitude of it, you embrace that and that's what we'll have to do."
- On his decision-making process and the Jimbo Fisher extension/firing at Texas A&M: "Gene was an AD since he was 28 years old, I think I was 37 and now I'm 51. So you take all those experiences ... you take facts, you take data, you take personalities and you make the right decision. ... At the end of the day, it's the Harry Truman quote, 'The buck stops here.' At the end of the day, I'm the AD, if there's anyone to blame, blame me."
- Addressing his backing of Hugh Freeze before the head coach's ultimate firing at Ole Miss, Bjork said what the athletic department went on at that time were "facts" and that Freeze had always been a "compliant" head coach.
- On how he evaluates head coaches: "It's the institution that comes first. So I'm gonna lean in on Gene over these next months. ... You have to get to know the people, you have to get to know the place, which tells you the culture. ... What I'll do first is get to know (the coaches). ... We'll sit down and learn."
- On what he can bring to the football program from an administrative perspective: "The best thing that I can do is lock arms with him, figure out, 'Are there any barriers? Are there any key decisions?' ... I'm a football guy. I'm gonna help and I'm gonna make sure that we compete at the highest level because the pedigree is here. ... It's gonna be a lot of fun when we win those championships."
- Being a good fundraiser is about relationships with donors and gaining trust and allowing them to see your vision, Bjork said.
- On potential negative voices from the public: "Everything's a balance. ... There's people that can monitor those kind of things to see if it's out of hand. ... If I make people mad, it probably means the right decision. If I make people happy, I probably made the right decision. ... (It's about being) never too high, never too low."
- On Mark Stoops being a candidate for the Texas A&M job: "No athletic director has the full autonomy to say, 'I'm gonna hire this person and no one else was involved.' ... So at the end of the day, who did you hire and how did you get there. That's what matters most."
- For now, NIL is about controlling what your own program is doing in the space and not worrying about what's going on nationally, Bjork said. "That's reality, what's happening on your campus. You don't really know what's happening across the country. ... We have to get the culture right first ... then there has to be a structure around NIL. ... If we can build this out the right way to model the infrastructure for the future."
- Bjork said the goal is to keep all 36 varsity sports at Ohio State, even as new revenue sharing models and revenue streams are involved. "We have unbelievable facilities. Those aren't going to sit empty. ... But knowing what's king, football. Other varsity sports have to recognize that."
- The Big Ten and SEC are both emerging from college football, and Bjork is excited to see what the Big Ten has to offer. "There's no doubt that it's going that direction. ... It goes back to what I talked about, consolidation of the highest programs. ... We are the two leaders, our conferences are. ... I think we have to shape it and we have to monitor what's gonna happen within the landscape."
- On whether he's in favor of football breaking off from the other sports: "I think the first question is, what does that mean? ... Universities want education tethered to this. So if we say we're separate in football, what does that mean? So to me, the highest-resource institutions (need to take charge)."
- Bjork wants to take some weight off the shoulders of his coaches as the constant grind of NIL, the transfer portal and an intense recruiting calendar places "too much on them as people."
- Top universities have to be willing to give big deals to coaches, Bjork said, but he added that it can't go overboard. "It all goes back to the key word, the balance. ... I don't think you're going to see 10-year, fully-guaranteed (contracts). I think those days are waning. ... But if (the coaches are) talented, there's going to be a market for that."
- Bjork said he thinks Ryan Day is “a brilliant mind in the game of football ... He’s gonna get it done and it’s gonna be a lot of fun when we win those championships.”
Bjork also answered several additional questions about the future of Ohio State football, his impressions of Chris Holtmann and Ohio State men’s basketball and what excites him most about becoming OSU’s athletic director in a post-press conference interview session with Ohio State reporters.
