{"id":64256,"date":"2024-08-05T14:44:31","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T19:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=64256"},"modified":"2024-08-05T14:44:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T19:44:31","slug":"ross-bjork-ohio-state-putting-everything-on-the-table-for-naming-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/ross-bjork-ohio-state-putting-everything-on-the-table-for-naming-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Ross Bjork: Ohio State putting \u2018everything on the table\u2019 for naming rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ross Bjork<\/strong> started his tenure as Ohio State<\/strong><\/a> athletic director last month but he has been evaluating the athletic department for months. <\/p>\n

The former Texas A&M<\/strong><\/a> and Ole Miss<\/strong><\/a> athletic director shadowed for Gene Smith<\/strong> in the months leading up to July 1. He led the process for new coaching hires in men\u2019s basketball, softball and baseball. Bjork has approached all of this thinking about what revenue sharing will mean. <\/p>\n

While some schools are focused on just matching the $22 million in Year One of revenue sharing, he\u2019s eyed what that number could grow to over the 10-year settlement agreement. Top programs like Alabama<\/strong><\/a>, Georgia<\/strong><\/a> and Texas<\/strong><\/a> could be sharing up to $30 million in the next decade. <\/p>\n

With the NCAA<\/strong> now allowing on-field sponsorships and the future prospect of jersey patches, Bjork said Ohio State is evaluating every option for new revenue sources. That could even include naming rights for Ohio Stadium. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo Safelite is exclusive for the field naming, so it\u2019s the field name,\u201d he recently told On3. \u201cBut in and around the perimeter of the stadium, adjacencies to the field, things like that. I\u2019ve been saying, \u2018Look, we have to put everything on the table.\u2019 Naming rights of the stadium. The jersey patch is a conversation. We have to work with our partner, Nike, in that conversation. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re breaking glass right now and we\u2019re going to put the window back, let\u2019s get it all on the table so we can put the window back in the right position. Everything has to be on the table right now to analyze. That doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re going to do it. It just means let\u2019s at least answer the question. Here\u2019s the value. Is this the right thing to do? Yes or No. If it\u2019s not, OK, fine. If it is, how do we pursue it? Or how does it fit in?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bjork isn\u2019t ready to announce cuts to his new department. His predecessor at Texas A&M, Trev Alberts<\/strong>, laid<\/a> off several high-level administrators and staffers in April. The House<\/em> settlement agreement allows for institutions to reduce the number of sports offered. <\/p>\n

Ohio State could install different tiers of funding for sports. Bjork believes there will continue to be financial aid and traditional scholarships. Revenue sharing will be in a bucket. Plus, name, image and likeness<\/a> will be accessible to all athletes. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat sports are in the financial aid category, what sports are in the revenue share category \u2014 all sports can be in the NIL category,\u201d Bjork said. \u201cWe can try to support them for all sports. And then what you have to do is, depending on how it\u2019s funded in those other categories, you have to determine what are the resources needed to support that sport. If we have sports that become walk-on sports where the athletes are walk-ons, do they need as much infrastructure around them? <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 If you\u2019re stratifying your sports, do you need that extra coach anymore? Those are all the questions that we have to answer at some point in time. We don\u2019t have full clarity on that piece yet. That\u2019s part of our analysis. And so when we say shrink, I think the answer is, what do you need to operate that program? And what do you need to operate the program where you don\u2019t impact the student-athlete experience? You still have health and safety. You\u2019re not going backward on that. But the other stuff that we do for our sports, you may have to pull back.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Ohio State and Ross Bjork evaluate what changes will be needed to offer the top dollar in revenue sharing, the athletic director is not making changes to expectations around the football program. After three consecutive losses to\u00a0Michigan<\/strong><\/a>, pressure in Columbus is high for Ryan Day<\/a><\/strong> to defeat the archrival and deliver a national title. Even when he touts a 56-8 record.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve sold more season tickets than we have in the last 15 years in a single season,\u201d Bjork said. \u201cSo how do we continue the fan experience, those kinds of things? So the expectation piece that\u2019s there no matter what, because it\u2019s Ohio State. What we focus on is what are the resources. How do we build it right? What kind of people do we have?\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Ross Bjork: Ohio State putting \u2018everything on the table\u2019 for naming rights<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ross Bjork started his tenure as Ohio State athletic director last month but he has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64304,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64256\/revisions\/64304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}