Ohio
Ohio State expected to name Texas A&M AD Ross Bjork to succeed Gene Smith
Ohio State is expected to hire Texas A&M’s Ross Bjork to succeed Gene Smith as the school’s athletic director, a source told The Dispatch Monday.
Bjork, 51, has been Texas A&M’s AD since 2019. He was previously at the Mississippi and Western Kentucky.
He is a native of Dodge City, Kansas, and graduated from Emporia State University.
Bjork’s apparent hiring comes just days after Ted Carter officially began as Ohio State’s new president. Ohio State’s board of trustees must approve the hiring.
In an interview with The Dispatch on Thursday, Carter said the first word that comes to mind in hiring a new AD is “leader.” The individual would need to “know how to work across a very complex spectrum,” he said.
Carter was also looking for someone who understands the vast challenges and changes taking place over the next few years across the college athletics landscape — NIL, conference realignments, changes to the college football playoffs and managing 36 Division 1 teams, to name a few.
“We need to hire somebody that is not learning on the job,” Carter said. “(They) have to come in with a whole lot of experience, understand the challenges that are out in front of us, be able to make certainly hard decisions — because there will be some hard decisions coming up.”
Smith will retire at the end of June after serving as AD since 2005.