Press Coverage: Ross Bjork backs Ryan Day, expects NCAA model changes but doesn’t plan to cut sports

Press Coverage: Ross Bjork backs Ryan Day, expects NCAA model changes but doesn’t plan to cut sports

Welcome inside the coovi center Dan hope joined by Andy Anders for a special edition of press coverage where Ross bork was just formally introduced as Ohio State’s new athletic director about a 75 minute long press conference so there’s certainly a lot of different things we could talk about today I think

One that certainly standed out was Ross giving a very full froed endorsement of Ryan day when he was asked about Ryan day uh he predicted that Ryan day is win championships here at Ohio State and it’s going to be a lot of fun and so while we’ll ultimately see what happens

With the Ohio State football program over the next year it certainly doesn’t sound like someone who’s coming in and thinking about changing football coaches right now yes specifically saying you know I look forward to the national championships will win together is what Ross Bor said and I I I think that it

Wasn’t just that I think the general confidence of his demeanor really stood out in this you know uh talked about being so assured in his decisions as an athletic director in his decision-making process uh referen the old Harry truin quote the buck stops here you know if

There’s if you’re ever going to place blame on someone place blame on him is kind of what he said for any decisions that go wrong but also having the confidence in in his experience and he has a lot of experience already as an athletic director you know said he’s

Been doing this since he was 37 he’s 51 now um to come in and Lead this program and I think Ted Carter also expressed that in his press conference a lot of interesting little tidbits a lot of broads scope uh college football and college athletic things come about when

You’re talking to an athletic director um and hearing some of his thoughts on those topics too was very interesting you know saying that he believes the highest resource programs in the NCAA like Ohio State need to consolidate power and drive the charge of Athletics forward obviously he has a big nil

Background he got into some of that and wanting to listen to athletes more talked about some Revenue sharing topics a lot of different ins and outs of the big land landscape of College athletics that you know it’s been changing a lot over the last few years Dan yeah this

Was our first opportunity to talk to both Ted Carter and Ross bork about the future of College athletics and both of them seem to be on board with the vision that’s been put out there by Charlie Baker where you would separate the biggest programs from everybody else in

Terms of what they can do financially being able to share Revenue with players I think both of them recognize that that’s the future of College athletics that’s where this thing is headed and so uh certainly you know Ross bork is coming in at a very interesting time in

College sports where most likely college sports in 5 years is going to look a lot different than it does now it certainly looks different now than it did 5 years ago and so Ross bork is going to play a very big role in ensuring that Ohio

State is ready for that next step I think you know one interesting thing that came up today was the question of whether Ohio state will continue to have 36 Varsity Sports because that’s something that I’ve wondered about is when you get into the point of starting to share revenue of athletes is it

Really realistic to continue to fund 30 36 Sports when 34 of those sports are largely funded by the football program’s Revenue but both Ted Carter and Ross bork said you know their goal is to continue to have 36 Sports here at Ohio State now Ted Carter acknowledged things

Can always change Ross bork said acknowledge that football is King here and we all understand that but uh there does still seem to be that Vision that aspiration for Ohio State to continue to fund all of the sports that it currently does right and I think you know Ross’s

Experience playing Athletics kind of helps in that regard you know he understands the importance it has for a young for a young adult that’s you know growing into that next phase of life you know um athletes have higher grades in school athletes do a lot of good things

In their Community it’s a great opportunity and you don’t want to cut those opportunities if you can afford not to do so uh like you said obviously some issues that arise with when you talk about a revenue sharing model maybe down the line but I think you can cross

That bridge when when you get there and for now it was very clear today that their intention is to keep all 36 Varsity Sports I think the other really interesting thing from this was hearing bork’s answers to some of the tough questions from his past athletic directing experiences both with the uh

Jimbo Fisher situation giving him a huge massive guaranteed contract at Texas A&M kind of took some responsibility for that maybe and what what happened there and that’s where that Harry Truman quote came up really from him and talking about you know anything that goes wrong

BL me but um and then also the Hugh free situation with Old Miss um talking about you know he felt that the facts when they backed H freeze um the facts were good and that he had a history of compliance but that he had a personal failing and when that personal failing

Came to light they fired him so that was kind of his answers to you know I think the two biggest questions the two biggest knocks on his track record coming into today um and you know I I I think he answered them as as best he

Could you know it was it was tough because they were kicked off to this question and answer part of his presser right away but uh yeah it was interesting to hear his his thoughts on the situations yeah and he did say he thinks the year the days of 10-year

Fully guaranteed contracts for coaches are over so it doesn’t sound like he plans on giving Ryan Day a 10-year fully guaranteed contract said his aspiration would be to focus more on incentive based contracts at the same time he acknowledged if these things get driven by the market and so you know ultimately

If Ohio state has a coach it really wants to keep it it’s going to pay what it needs to pay in order to keep that coach but does seem like he’s learned lessons from the things that maybe he did incorrectly in the past and certainly one of those

Things was giving that contract to Jimbo Fisher right and you know another thing too uh I think one of the biggest strengths that people view Ross bork as having coming into this job it’s his fundraising ability uh his ability to grow and really funnel money into an athletics department uh raise nil

Dollars do those sorts of things uh he talked about the importance of relationships with donors uh and how that kind of drives a fundraising effort uh really establishing what the vision is for a program and selling donors on that vision and you know I think we’ve

Talked about you know there could be a really good Synergy that emerges and and has emerged even over the last year or two uh between Ohio State’s athletic department and the nil front uh I think that you know Ross Bor has a lot of experience running one of the biggest

Nil you know um not collectives but operations in uh in college athletics there at Texas A&M so I I think it was also interesting to hear his take on that situation and wanting to get feedback from athletes and understand what their experiences are with n thank you for watching this

Episode of press coverage lots more coverage to come on 11w warriors.com as Ohio State’s football offseason continues to roll on Ohio State’s basketball men’s basketball looks to get back on track and we’ll have lots more coverage to come from Ross bork’s introduction as Ohio State’s athletic director

We share our biggest takeaways from Ross Bjork’s introductory press conference, including his endorsement of Ryan Day, his expectation that the NCAA model, his expectation that Ohio State will continue funding 36 sports and taking responsibility for the ill-fated contract extension he gave Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M.

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