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The 5 Most Interesting Things We Learned From New Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjork · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, January eighteenth. I'm your host,
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  tom Or. The Acron game is in two hundred and twenty six days.
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  The game againstistually get in three hundred and seventeen days. And it just hit
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  me right this very second, twenty two years old, twenty two years ago
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  today, Jim Tressel stood in the middle of the basketball court at the Shottenstein
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  Center and told you what was gonna happen in three hundred and ten days.
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  So I got to pay I guess a little homage to the countdown that I
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  guess sort of vaguely inspired the countdowns at the start of this show every single
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  day. So there you go, twenty two years ago today. Boy,
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  we're all getting old. Speaking of people who are getting old, Tony grdim
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  and I fuck I had over dot com joins me, Tony. You and
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  I got to spend some quality time together Wednesday around lunchtime to meet Ohio State's
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  new athletic director, Ross Bjork. And you know, I think there was
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  a lot of stuff that we sort of knew about him coming in. One
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  thing I did not know about him until he started talking about it is Ross
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  Bjork has some pretty significant face only ties to the state of Ohio. Yeah,
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  and the best part of the state of Ohio, Northwest Ohio. His
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  mother is from Williamsburg, Williamstown, Williamstown, Williamstown. There's a bunch of
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  them, Tom, you'll figure it out one day. But yeah, up
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  in the northwest area of the state. And so I thought it was interesting
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  talking about how that's where his mom's side is from. His dad's side is
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  from like Denver, and so during holidays you'd have to decide which, you
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  know, where are you going to go, Ohio or Denver because he was
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  in a Dodge City, Kansas, that's where his family ended up. And
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  so I talked about, you know, dry getting on I seventy and that
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  sounds like the longest, most boring drive all the way to Dayton and then
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  you shoot up north on seventy five. But talking about you know, just
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  making that drive and then hitting the gravel road that takes you to the family
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  farm takes me back to very simi things. So obviously you know, well
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  great stock that he's from. Afterwards, I did introduce myself to his mother
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  and said, hey, I'm an Henry County person. Here and so you
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  know, we said our helloes. But yeah, his mom's side of the
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  family all decked out in Ohio State gear and that's not new clothes. I'm
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  guessing that came from their closets that have been in there. And he did
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  say, if you follow my mom on Facebook, she posts more about Ohio
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  State than she ever did about Texas A and M I can't wait for his
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  mom's hot takes on all the things he's doing wrong. If she's an Ohio
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  State fan, she will have some thoughts, I'm sure at some point on
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  some things. So we'll see if he leans on his mom's expertise at any
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  point in terms of leading the Ohio State Athletic Department. But one of the
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  things that he's going to be in charge of, and one of the things
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  that he's sort of known for reputationally, is fundraising and development. And he
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  talked a little bit about the difference between fundraising and development, which as someone
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  who is development at a nonprofit, I'm kind of nodding along as he's saying
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  all of these things, but you know, it is I think probably one
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  of you know, the main thing, obviously, he said, the most
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  important thing is, you know, a good experience for all the student athletes.
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  But also it feels like fundraising and development is going to be you know
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  that. That feels like that's a good chunk of the reason that Ross b
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  Yorke was standing at the podium on Wednesday afternoon. Yeah, as I'm going
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  through my head earlier in today, like what questions do I want to answer?
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  Ask? And I've got all these questions and one of the ones I
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  wanted to ask is, if your job is a pie, what are the
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  three biggest pieces of that pie? Like what part of your job you know
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  would constitute the three biggest pieces of your entire job? And somewhere in those
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  top three is going to be that fundraising. And I've said it on I
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  think Twitter, on the buck I had a message board. If you can
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  fundraise and you can just screw something up, then you can be an athletic
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  director. Now can you do that at Ohio State? That's another animal entirely,
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  But it was interesting listening to him talk about how are you become a
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  good fundraiser? And basically it's communication, a well laid out plan, and
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  then if you do that well enough, you won't even have to ask for
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  money. People will just be like, how can I help you? And
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  that sounds incredibly easy, Tom. I don't know if you're aware of how
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  easy that is. But to just be organized, communicate, and you have
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  good ideas or have good ideas brought to you that you can put forward to
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  these people that want to give you the money. Yeah, he said that
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  was the difference through fundraising. Development was development means you get to the point
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  where they're asking you how can I help you? You're developing that relationship development
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  that interests. That was one of those points during which I was kind of
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  nodding along, like uh huh, I've I've seen and heard this elsewhere in
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  my in my life, and it is one of the cruisms of fundraising slash
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  development, that is that is one of those things. He was also asked
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  about some of the other elements of his story and elements of his past.
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  He is currently he will not you know, he will not officially be the
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  AD at Ohio State until July first, So he is currently still the AD
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  at Texas A and M, where he just hired Mike Elco, which I
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  think is viewed as a pretty good, pretty solid higher and a kind of
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  smart, reputable coach who's probably going to do good things there. But earlier
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  in his career, he was the one who helped extend Jimbo Fisher's contract that
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  then they had to buy out at the end of last season. So you
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  know, he was asked a little bit about that whole process and his time
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  at Texas A and M and his role in the whole Jimbo Fisher, I
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  don't want to say fiasco, but situation. So what did he have to
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  say about all of that, Well, he did mention in twenty twenty one,
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  there came an opening somewhere else around the nation that kind of caused an
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  extension and what it was a LSU that he was maybe referring to, where
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  there's some some talk about Fisher maybe going to LSU at one point. So
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  this is part of the thing that you have to do. You have to
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  extend coaches, You have to show them that they're wanted when when one job
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  opens. I mean, look at the incredible domino effect that is happening from
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  Nick Saban retiring. It is going to impact forty programs before this is all
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  finally stopped. All the dishes finally stopped spinning. But yeah, it's been
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  the way he has answered that addressed those things. The Fisher thing talking about
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  how you're not necessarily forced into this, but there are external factors, and
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  they're also external factors driving you to this in terms of people, in terms
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  of situations, circumstances, it's not just him going, you know what I'd
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  like to do. I think I'd like to just give Jimbo Fisher an extension.
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  I know he's not even asking for one. I know there's no reason
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  to give him one, but there's just you've got to kind of play the
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  cards that you're being dealt at any given day. And the current state of
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  college football head coaching is way beyond I think anybody gotten had in their mind
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  twenty years ago and now that you're in this business. He got into it.
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  He's been an ad for like thirty years or whatever, and now this
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  is swimming with sharks area areas that he's in now, and sometimes you just
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  have to get your arm bit en off. And that's not really a unique
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  thing for him by any means. I mean that if you look at the
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  Nick Saban retirement and the cascade effect from that in terms of how many different
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  people got extensions or got pay bumps. And then of course you have some
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  of the people who jumped, you know, Ki when the boar jumps to
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  Alabama and that allows Jedfish to jump to Washington, and that allows the San
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  Jose State coach you jump to Arizona, and it's just kind of a little
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  bit out of a cascade effect there. So yeah, it is. This
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  is I think a little bit of the realities to the market, and that
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  market may be changing to a certain degree because there are other economic forces at
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  work other than just Jimmy Sexton clients and Grace Armstrong clients and all of that
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  sort of being able to play the game. Now, some of the realities
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  of the finances of college football and college sports in general are starting to change
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  with Charlie Baker proposal and you know, schools potentially bringing an il house and
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  all that kind of stuff. You know, you can sort of ask someone,
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  so what do you think about the future of college sports? And then
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  it's just like, all right, well, I'm going to go just set
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  a recorder down and walk away, and I'll come back in three hours and
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  I'm sure you will have basically written me an entire book. So are what
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  are ross Gyork's views on the future of college sports. Yeah, in a
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  tiny SoundBite. Basically, I thought it was interesting. He talked about the
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  alignment that you need to have in the university from the president down to the
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  ad down to the coaches, and I think the alignment at Ohio State is
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  that change is coming. You have to be part of the change. You
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  have to figure out how to compensate the players, the student athletes, and
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  that's going to change other aspects of fundraising. So that's why you go get
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  a very good fundraiser to help deal with all of this. But the interesting
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  thing for me when he talked about how he sees a tipping point coming in
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  the next three to five years in terms of whether it's breaking away, whether
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  it's who knows, And obviously I think we're going to see some compensations before
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  then, but in terms of the breaking away of the haves versus the have
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  nots, or they have very much is versus the have not nearly as much
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  as But then I asked him, are you looking forward to that tipping point?
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  And he said, I just am looking forward to clarity and no longer
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  being in the gray of any of this. Having a legally defended plan.
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  I think is also key because they're waiting on you know, the NCAA to
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  do their thing, They're waiting on Congress to do their thing. They he
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  is looking forward to. Yes, there's gonna be some upheaval, it's gonna
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  be crazy, but it has been crazy for about four years now with everything
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  going on, and that includes a year in there with with COVID where everything
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  else is going crazy and as still continue to impact the bottom line for a
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  lot of people. He is just ready for things to settle down. And
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  it reminds me of the thing that Ryan Day has always said, let's just
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  stop changing stuff. Let's just because every time you change something, there is
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  a butterfly effect and there's something else that that happens from that. So let's
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  just get through this right now. But I do think both, I think
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  Ted Carter and both and Ross York as well. I think as Ross Byork
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  that said there are some things that you can do right now without splitting off,
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  and that's fixed December, and I think December, We've talked about it
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  so many times. Tom December is an impossible time for coaches in ball games
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  with the portal, with the signing day, they need to fix that.
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  He said, we should be able to do that right now without having to
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  break away from anybody in the lower tiers or the higher tiers or whatever.
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  They should be able to sit down, talk this out and get it fixed.
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  Yeah, there are sort of shorter term fixable problems and medium term fixable
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  problems, and then who knows about the long term at this point. But
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  you know, you talked about the haves and the have nots, and financially,
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  Ohio State is one of the haves, and on the field, Ohio
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  State is one of the haves. He's asked how he perceived Ohio State,
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  you know, before he even applied for the open athletic director position, and
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  he said, quote, championship of brand period. And I think that's something
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  that you know, we'll see how much Ohio State fans agree with and disagree
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  with with what he does over the you know, the coming years. But
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  I think that's one thing that Ohio State fans will definitely align with very closely
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  there with alignment being such a key thing, the expectations are pretty clear there.
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  Championships and He's had a lot of very very positive things to say about
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  Ryan Day and thinks he's a championship coach, but I think that is sort
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  of sending a message on day one championship brand period that means you're expecting some
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  championships. Yeah. And then after his press conference he broke away a little
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  bit and talked to busting a little scrum and was asked basically, what are
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  the standards and do you know what are the standards? And he said,
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  championships and that's what it's always been. And he spoke earlier about removing barriers
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  for those championships and finding ways to help the coaches achieve their goals and things
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  like that. And you know there are some programs at Ohio State that are
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  meeting that standard. He mentioned the women's hockey team for one, looking forward
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  to getting to know them better as they, you know, attempt to win
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  a national title. But the championship aspect, the desire for that, it's
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  not something that Jean Smith hasn't also wanted. So you know, there's only
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  why didn't the previous guy want to win championships? You know, there's there's
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  nothing, there's not that aspect of it. But I do think it's good
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  for the fans to hear that. It's good for the players to hear that,
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  it's great for the coaches to hear that, yeah, that's uh,
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  you know, yes, that the expectation on day one, and then you
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  kind of go from there. Yes, I'm sure, I'm sure it has
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  occurred to Jean Smith that hey, we should we should try to win championships.
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  And they have won a lot of championships over the years in various sports,
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  including football. With Jean Smith at the home of the Ohistate football program.
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  Uh, just wanted to end this on this. I think my single
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  favorite money moment, Tony was when Russ Biorker is at the podium and he's
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  coached in you know, he has been an AD at multiple SEC schools,
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  so he as they say in New York, he knows from crazy football fans.
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  But he said, how many message board situations are they're around here three
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  or four? Tony. That felt like, oh, oh, you're you
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  know, Oh, you've coached the you've been an AD in the SEC.
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  That's cute. Welcome to Ohio State. Why can you see how many media
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  outlets there are? Yeah, my favorite part what he said three or four
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  and the media and the first two sections of the stands in the seats.
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  They started laughing, like, oh oh, friend, so so much more
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  than you realize. You see the people that are sitting in front of you
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  right now. This is going to be every time you speak and more,
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  because that's just the way it is at Ohio State. And I always go
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  back to a few years back there's a scandal at Michigan State and they had
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  to have a press conference and emergency press conference and there's a really really serious
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  thing and there's a picture of the the scround before things in the hall before
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  they started, and there's like three people there. And that's just one of
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  the things that makes Ohio State different is the attention and the coverage and welcome,
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  learn to speak Columbus buddy, the tradition, the people, the excellence,
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  and that's just the reporters. Yeah, so very interesting, very interesting
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  first day with Ross Pjork. Its gonna be interesting to see how this all
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  develops. I did. I was very intrigued by the fact that he has
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  Ohio State ties that I don't know that anyone was necessarily aware of beforehand,
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  But as someone who did the drive from very far away to the holidays in
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  Ohio, I can kind of relate coming from a different direction, but I
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  can kind of relates doing that as a kid and ending up in Columbus,
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  you know, before all is said and done. So we'll see. We'll
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  see if ross Piork enjoys as long as stay in Columbus as or central of
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  Ohio as I have. Well, we'll see that. We'll all start on
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  July first. He's actually going to start around what March April, I think
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  he said it was sort of this spring, and then he will sort of
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  is a little bit of a transitional thing with Jeane Smith, and then his
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  first official day and in charge. First, What an eventful year that'll be.
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  That is the same belief first day as UCLA USC at USC Oregon,
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  Washington in the Big Ten. What an eventful day that's gonna be. What
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  an eventful year it's going to be at Ohio State in Big Ten, around
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  college sports in general, and of course at bucke Huddle dot com, where
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  there's lots of stuff going on. We didn't even talk about the two Alabama
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  players that went in the transfer portal in the last twenty four hours, Caleb
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  Downs Caden Proctor. It may be making a pursuit for one or both of
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  them. Other transfer portal, possible targets, other recruiting targets. There's plenty
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  of recruiting news potentially on the way. It's going to be a heck of
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  a month at bucke huddle dot com. Why don't you join us there,
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  Tony and Kevin and I covering the team, Mark covering recruiting, Justin Nickey,
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  Devin Ross covering x's and o's making you a smarter football fan, and
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  of course a very active and lively community on the huddle board presented by Jef
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  Ruby Steakhouse. We would love to see you there. We'd also love to
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  see you at YouTube dot com slash Bucke Huddle, where we have plenty of
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  live shows, plenty of live streams, plenty of recorded shows, plenty of
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  a little bit of everything for everyone. Is your one stop chop for pretty
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  much everything you need to know about Ohios date Football, YouTube dot com slash
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  Buckeye Huddle. That will do it today. I thank you guys all for
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  joining us. Have a great day, Talk to you tomorrow.