Ohio State reportedly hiring SEC athletic director to succeed Gene Smith
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State may turn to a longtime SEC athletic director to lead the program into a new era of the Big Ten.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported the school is targeting Texas A&M’s Ross Bjork as the successor for Gene Smith as athletic director. That and other reports say the process could be finalized this week.
Bjork, 51, has no previous Big Ten experience. He is in his fifth year as A&M’s athletic director after seven years at Ole Miss. His first athletic director experience came at Western Kentucky (2010-12) after five years as senior associate athletic director at UCLA.
That background could prove useful as UCLA is one of four west coast programs entering the Big Ten this summer.
Bjork oversaw an athletic department which had no trouble generating the name, image and likeness funds necessary to compete in that market. However, the A&M football program has underachieved significantly on his watch.
Bjork gave Jimbo Fischer a massive contract when hiring him away from Florida State in 2017. However, the Aggies never won more than nine games in a season under Fischer, who was fired after this past season. He received a buyout of $77 million.
Bjork does have some Midwestern connections. He is a Kansas native who played fullback at Emporia State. He went to graduate school at Western Illinois. Some of first career experience came in development at Missouri’s athletic department.
