Ohio State hires Ross Bjork from Texas A&M to be new athletic director

Ohio State announced the hiring of Texas A&M’s Ross Bjork as its new athletic director on Tuesday.

Bjork will succeed longtime Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, who led the Buckeyes’ athletic department for nearly 20 years before announcing that he’d retire back in August. Smith said he’d step down at the end of the 2023-24 academic year at the latest. Bjork is slated to start on July 1, 2024.

Smith has been one of college athletics’ most prominent leaders both within the Big Ten conference and across the nation, as he led one of the richest and most successful athletic departments in the country. He’d also served on various prestigious NCAA committees, including groups working through name, image and likeness (NIL) issues in college sports.

We're welcoming a new athletics director this summer! Ross Bjork will begin his tenure at @OhioStAthletics on July 1. We're looking forward to all he will accomplish as part of Buckeye Nation! ⭕️🙌https://t.co/HeMk2xpOr8

— Ohio State (@OhioState) January 16, 2024

Bjork, known as a terrific fundraiser, has served as the AD at Texas A&M since 2019, where he recently fired head football coach Jimbo Fisher (who received the largest buyout in college sports history) and hired new coach Mike Elko. In 2021, Bjork extended Fisher’s initial contract by four years, which led to the record $77.6 million buyout.

“Few athletics directors have established such an impressive and strong record of success in athletics, in the classroom and throughout the community,” Ohio State president Ted Carter said in a news release. “The bar is incredibly high at Ohio State, and we have found in Ross a highly intelligent and effective leader — not to mention a fierce competitor.”

Before Texas A&M, Bjork ran the athletic department at Ole Miss, and Western Kentucky before that. His AD tenure at Ole Miss was perhaps best known for the NCAA violations committed by former football coach Hugh Freeze, which led to the school vacating 33 wins, among other penalties.

The hire comes at a pivotal time in college athletics, as the enterprise faces an uncertain future that could result in athletes being paid by schools as employees.

What does Bjork’s hiring mean for Ohio State football?

Bjork takes over just before a crucial season for the football team.

Ryan Day is coming off three consecutive seasons with losses to Michigan and without a Big Ten title game appearance. This upcoming year feels very much like a must-win situation for Day, who now has a new athletic director for the first time in his tenure and will have high expectations with numerous key players — TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka, Jack Sawyer, JT Tuimoloau, Denzel Burke and more — returning for another season. Day and Smith are close, and the relationship between Bjork and Day will be the most important one in the athletic department going forward. — Cameron Teague Robinson, Ohio State beat writer

Required reading

• Ohio State final thoughts: Will Ryan Day add a transfer QB? Can O-line problems be fixed?
• Retiring Ohio State AD Gene Smith leaves lasting impact on Ryan Day: ‘He believed in me’

(Photo: Sam Craft / AP)