Ohio State President Ted Carter Jr. Reveals What Set Ross Bjork Apart from Other AD Candidates

Carter said several of the candidates whom interviewed for the position embodied Ohio State's values, but Bjork "was by far the leader" out of them.

It is official: Ross Bjork is the new athletic director of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

University president Walter "Ted" Carter Jr. introduced Bjork to Buckeyes coaches and media during a press conference on Wednesday at the Covelli Center.

Carter said several candidates were considered and interviewed to fill the sought-after position as Ohio State's athletic director. Bjork stood out from the rest, according to Carter, mostly due to his charter being aligned with that of the Buckeyes.

"He struck me as somebody that has the values (that we have) here at Ohio State: integrity, passion, care for our students," Carter said. "And as I went over before in my earlier comments, I was looking for those three criteria, and I measured those against all of the candidates, and he was by far the leader."

The entirety of Bjork's career up to this point has been outside of the Big Ten Conference. Bjork's journey as a collegiate athletic director has taken him to Western Kentucky and Ole Miss, with those two schools making up nine of his 14 years in the profession.

Most recently, Bjork had been serving in the same role at Texas A&M. Bjork led Aggies athletics forward for the past five years, having accepted the job in 2019.

Even though Bjork was announced this week, he will not begin his tenure until the end of July. Until then, Bjork will work alongside current athletic director Gene Smith, learning the nuances of Ohio State's department before he takes the reigns.