Ohio State AD Ross Bjork Wants Clarity On New Revenue-Sharing Model

The Ohio State Buckeyes' athletic director spoke with Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports at Big Ten Media Day and went into great detail about how Ohio State is facing the new college athletics landscape.

Mar 5, 2024; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day talks to incoming athletic director Ross Bjork during the first spring practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA

The entire college football landscape has changed in recent times and is continuing to evolve. Although the 12-team playoff, conference realignment and NIL have been major talking points in the last few years, a new revenue-sharing model has joined the mix of big topics to discuss. The revenue-sharing model impacts all sports across collegiate athletics, but football's Big Ten Media Day sparked an important discussion.

Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports interviewed new Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjork in Indianapolis. The former Texas A&M AD gave some insight as to how Ohio State is approaching the current era. Even for a school that produced the country's largest athletic budget of $275 million last year, everything is still a bit tricky right now.

The Ohio State Buckeyes (and all other schools) will be permitted to distribute revenue to athletes soon enough, but finding ways to balance this with federal Title IX law is an ongoing issue. In the meantime, Ohio State's donor-led collective and brand affiliates disbursed "around $20 million" to Buckeyes football players this past year, according to Bjork. When Dellenger asked Bjork if this would continue, Bjork basically said it's impossible to know at this point.

April 13, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Jeremiah Smith (4) playing for the scarlet team can't reel in a pass while defended by cornerback Davison Igbinosun (1) of the gray team of the during the first half of the LifeSports Spring Game at Ohio Stadium on Saturday. Despite the Spring Game being televised for the first time there were still plenty of fans in the stands at Ohio Stadium. / Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch /

"It's too early to predict," stated Bjork. "How is it going to be broken down from a Title IX standpoint? The challenge is, we’re up against the clock. We’re signing athletes in football in December. We need some clarity sometime this fall."

As head coach Ryan Day and his staff continue to push to add more top-tier recruits to their already strong 2025 class, so much uncertainty and the unknown of what numbers will exactly look like poses an added challenge. The class of 2025 will be the first group of freshman to receive direct revenue sharing from schools and Bjork noted that coaches and administrators purposely need to be vague with recruits right now.

"We’re telling them there’s going to be three buckets: traditional financial aid, revenue sharing and the name, image and likeness (NIL) category,” Bjork told Dellenger. “What the NIL ecosystem looks like in the future is still to be determined, but those are basically the three categories of how you will receive (compensation). What those numbers are and what that looks like … no one can provide any clarity on right now.”

Although there aren't specific numbers that can be discussed currently with so many moving pieces and a need for clarity, Ohio State, like many schools, is "modeling, analyzing and testing" different ways to distribute revenue according to Bjork. Both Bjork and Ryan Day seem to be in agreement that any ratio of how revenue is split between men's and women's sports should be the same or similar across the country.

"I think coming together and having some uniformity is the most important thing here," Day told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday. "In terms of what that number is, that’s over my head. I know we need to be Title IX compliant at the same time. I think some uniformity is not unreasonable."

Mar 5, 2024; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day watches his team during the first spring practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA

It is clear that Bjork, Day and the rest of Ohio State athletics are not alone in hoping for further clarity and waiting for answers. For the sake of all the football programs in the NCAA, more answers in the current calendar year would appear to be very beneficial prior to the start of the early signing period in December.

As for when more answers and clarity will actually come, that part is to be determined.