Ohio State Hires Texas A&M Athletic Director Ross Bjork To Replace Gene Smith
Ohio State Buckeyes athletic director Gene Smith is set to retire in July of this year, after spending nearly 20 years with the school.
During his time with the Buckeyes, Smith helped lead the athletics program to elite-level status, paving the way for national titles, conference championships, and much more throughout his tenure.
With that in mind, Buckeyes decision-makers have been hard at work attempting to find a replacement for Smith.
And now, they may have found their man, with Buckeyes President Walter 'Ted' Carter Jr. announcing the hire of former Texas A&M Aggies Athletic Director Ross Bjork on Tuesday.
Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports
“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 a statement. “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 has been with the Aggies since 2019, spending the last few years and change attempting to revitalize the Texas A&M football and basketball programs from the ground up.
During that time the Aggies set new records in overall grade point average, NCAA Graduate Success Rate, and NCAA Academic Progress Rate
Bjork has also had a solid success rate at hiring coaches for the Aggies, with all three of his 2021 coaching hires making deep post-season runs in Baseball and Men's and Women's golf.
With that in mind, the decision-makers at Ohio State were blown away by Bjork's character, drive, and persona, and are expecting him to make an 'immediate impact.'
“Ross is uniquely equipped to step into our Buckeye community and make an immediate impact,” Smith said. “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.”
As far as football is concerned, however, Bjork's track record is a bit more rocky.
Bjork played a huge role in the 10-year extension of head football coach Jimbo Fisher in 2021, which turned out to be a disaster for the Aggies.
Bjork eventually found Fisher's replacement in former Duke head coach and Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Elko, after a controversial coaching search.
Fisher would eventually go on to be fired this fall, just two years after the extension, forcing the Aggies to pay a record-setting buyout of more than $75 million to replace him - breaking the previous record held by Gus Malzahn by more than $54 million.
Before his time at Texas A&M, Bjork was the athletic director at Ole Miss from 2012-2019, helping the Rebels to navigate and NCAA investigation and their own head coaching controversy with Hugh Freeze.
After firing Freeze, Bjork elected to hire Ole Miss legacy Matt Luke, who was fired after three years.