Ohio State announces hiring of Texas A&M's Ross Bjork as next athletic director

Ohio State announced on Tuesday the hiring of Ross Bjork as the successor to Gene Smith as the school’s athletic director.

The OSU board of trustees must approve the hire. Its next scheduled meeting is in February.

Bjork has been the athletic director at Texas A&M for the past five years. Before that, he served in that role at the University of Mississippi from 2012-19. His first job as an athletic director was at Western Kentucky from 2010-12.

Bjork, 51, is a native of Dodge City, Kansas, and graduated from Emporia State where he played fullback on the football team.

“I have been extraordinarily blessed to be a product of college athletics as a student-athlete and fortunate to work with so many outstanding student-athletes, coaches, staff and university leaders throughout my career, and Ohio State represents the culmination of these efforts,” Bjork said in the press release announcing his hiring. “To be a part of Buckeye Nation, along with its storied traditions and long history of achievement, is a tremendous honor and a welcome challenge for me and our family. I can’t wait to get started.”

Bjork’s hire is the first major one in the tenure of new Ohio State president Ted Carter, who was hired in August and officially began this month.

Ohio State: 5 things you need to know about Ross Bjork, OSU's expected athletic director hire

“Few athletics directors have established such an impressive and strong record of success in athletics, in the classroom and throughout the community,” Carter said in the press 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.”

Bjork will become the ninth athletic director in school history. Smith, a Cleveland native, has served since 2005 and is regarded as one of the most respected and influential athletic directors in the country. He announced his retirement in August.

Smith's last day is June 30. Bjork will take over on July 1.

“Ross is uniquely equipped to step into our Buckeye community and make an immediate impact,” Smith said in the release. “As I have said, Ohio State has afforded me the professional opportunity of a lifetime, and I am forever grateful. My final, important project over the next several months will be to work with Ross to ensure a smooth and effective transition with our student-athletes, coaches, department staff and university leaders.”

Bjork himself has no ties to Ohio or the Big Ten, though his mother grew up in Williamstown on a family farm about 60 miles south of Toledo. His tenures overseeing the Ole Miss and Texas A&M have included major controversies.

At Ole Miss, Bjork repeatedly defended then-football coach Hugh Freeze against 21 NCAA rules violation charges, including a failure-to-monitor charge against Freeze and a lack of institutional control. The NCAA infractions committee said Ole Miss had "an unconstrained culture of booster involvement in football recruiting."

The allegations included charges of a cash payment to a linebacker. Freeze was eventually fired after it came to light from a public records request filed by his predecessor, Houston Nutt, that Freeze had placed at least 12 phone calls to escort services.

At Texas A&M, Bjork fired football coach Jimbo Fisher in November. Fisher was lured to Texas A&M from Florida State in 2017 with a guaranteed, 10-year, $75 million contract. Bjork didn't become Texas A&M's AD until 2019, but he extended Fisher's contract in 2021 through 2031 and allowed it to remain fully guaranteed.

No offset or stipulation was included in the extension to reduce the amount A&M owes Fisher if he takes another job. As a result, the school owed Fisher $76 million.

"It was a mistake, as we look back on it," Bjork is quoted as saying in a report by Dallas television station WFAA following Fisher's firing. "There’s a lot of other buyouts where if coaches got let go today, would be more than what our buyout is. But those programs are winning. Ours didn’t work.”

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State announces Texas A&M's Ross Bjork as next athletic director