Effective July 1, Ross Bjork will take charge as athletic director for the Ohio State Buckeyes. This demonstrates yet again how wonderful the United States is—seemingly minor but significant professional mishaps can be avoided with a soild handshake and unwavering jawline.
The university highlighted Bjork’s many strengths in a press release announcing his hiring on Tuesday. Texas A&M has improved the overall academic standing of its players since he became AD in 2019. He is eager to get some things constructed. He has made contributions to advancements in name, image, and likeness at A&M. He employed a number of intelligent individuals. He had some great times as Mississippi’s AD prior to that.
Bjork’s ability to appear and act like an AD from a prestigious university is arguably most noteworthy to some university presidents—possibly because it was intended to be a parody. He delivers buzzwords and jargon in an elegant and deft manner.
However, the following portion of the resume was left out of Ohio State’s press statement praising Bjork’s hiring:
From 2014 to 2016, Bjork oversaw the Hugh Freeze Scandal Buffet at Mississippi. During that era, there were significant NCAA infractions, Freeze’s well-publicized personal scandal that lost him his job, and a coordinated effort to spread false information about the NCAA’s investigation of the Rebels, which resulted in a defamation lawsuit from Houston Nutt, the previous coach. Bjork, Freeze, and other Ole Miss employees purposefully deceived reporters and potential recruits on the specifics of the infractions, crafting a story that attributed most of the fault to Nutt.
Attorney Tom Mars filed the defamation complaint on behalf of Nutt in late 2017 after the NCAA’s notice of charges became public in May 2016 and it became evident that Nutt was being unfairly singled out for blame. The complaint contains several references to Bjork and goes into great depth about his activities. Ole Miss settled the lawsuit and swiftly apologized to Nutt. (If you’ve ever wondered how Mars rose to prominence in collegiate sports, this was his springboard.)
Ole Miss was hit with a two-year playoff suspension, a 15% decrease in scholarships, recruitment limitations, disassociated boosters, and 33 annulled wins as a result of the NCAA probe.
Matt Luke, one of Bjork’s assistant coaches, took Freeze’s spot. Bjork promoted Luke to the full-time position after the team finished 6–6 under his temporary leadership. After three seasons, he finished 15-21 overall and 6-18 in the Southeast Conference before being sacked by Keith Carter, Bjork’s replacement.
Kermit Davis Jr., the men’s basketball coach at Ole Miss, was another well-known hire made by Bjork. Following early success—a 20-win campaign in his first season—Davis finished 54–66 and was let go by Carter before the conclusion of the previous campaign.
Following those events, Bjork received an unexpected job offer from Texas A&M, an ultra-sugary athletic department in the same SEC division as Ole Miss. For a man some believed would not make it through the freeze period, this was a significant improvement.
The most conspicuous move made by Bjork was giving Jimbo Fisher the most reckless contract extension in college football history, which eventually resulted in the most costly buyout in the history of the sport.
Fisher was coming off a 9–1 pandemic season in 2020—a notable improvement after 9–4 and 8–5 years before. Overwhelmed by the achievement of almost qualifying for the College Football Playoff, Bjork and the A&M Board of Regents decided to extend Fisher’s contract, which would have paid him $9 million a year, until ’31. The wage pool for his employees likewise skyrocketed to $13 million by 2023.
The most ludicrous part was that Fisher’s buyout stayed exactly as ski mask robbery as it was in his original contract, which Scott Woodward, his predecessor, had authorized. He was entitled to the whole $95.6 million contract term, which was reduced by only $9 million annually in the event that he was dismissed. Fisher owed the school nothing if he departed. It’s without doubt the most unfair coaching contract in history.
As expected, Fisher quickly went back to her passable output. His record fell back to 8–4, then to 5–7, and then had a little comeback to 6–4 in the previous season until his dismissal in November at an estimated cost of $77 million. After a new coach and staff were hired, many of those large wages from the assistant coach and support staff had to be swallowed.
Bjork explained to TV station WFAA that she had decided to fire Fisher and keep the money for herself. “President Walsh concurred. You deliver it to [John] Sharp, the Chancellor. He concurred.
Another memorable aspect of the Fisher era was when he and his team received a fine from the NCAA in 2020 for exceeding practice and exercise time rules and having improper contact with a recruit. Fisher broke the regulations of program monitoring and head coach accountability. Fisher and an assistant received six-month show-cause orders and recruiting limitations as a result of the violation case.
After Buzz Williams, the successful men’s basketball coach at A&M, left, Bjork took over as head of the NCAA’s investigation into the program for improper recruiting contacts and workouts during the COVID-19 dead period. Williams received a two-game suspension for the 2021–22 season, and A&M suspended an assistant coach for the entire 2021–22 campaign. Sanctions were also applied to recruitment by the Aggies.
Almost hiring Mark Stoops was one of Bjork’s last actions as the athletic director at Texas A&M, but he was met with resistance. After the season-ending victory against Louisville, Stoops started informing those close to him that he was intending to move to College Station. Bjork had targeted the Kentucky coach to replace Fisher, and the deal seemed near enough to be finalized.
However, the backlash against Stoops in the boardroom was swift and intense, and by the early hours of November 26, the agreement had collapsed. In a masterful attempt to convey that he was making this choice on his own, Stoops announced via Twitter at 1:02 a.m. that he would be remaining in Kentucky. On X (previously Twitter), Stoops said, “I knew in my heart I couldn’t leave the University of Kentucky right now.” Reversing the offer from A&M makes more sense.
Any athletic director would be wise to look for a new position after having their authority publicly undermined, but Bjork was able to fail higher up at Ohio State. Undoubtedly, this is among the top five AD positions in the nation, if not the best.
On their website, the Buckeyes feature 35 sports, and they excel in almost every one of them. The football program is world-class. The donor base, or fan base, is enormous and fervent. The amenities are excellent. The Big Ten income fountain is about to burst into a waterfall. Additionally, the department has been rather steady since the departure of the well-known AD Gene Smith.
The assumption was that Pat Chun from Washington State, Martin Jarmond from UCLA, or Heather Lyke from Pittsburgh, three of Smith’s many proteges who worked under him at Ohio State and went on to Division I positions, would take his place. Rather, Ross Bjork makes another enhancement.
In the current era of collegiate sports, a strong jawline and a forceful handshake may go a long way. all the way to one of the top positions in America for an athletic director.
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