Press Coverage: Ohio State’s Revenue Sharing Plan, Night Game Push Highlight Ross Bjork Presser
[Music] welcome inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center dan Hope joined by Andy Anders it’s been a while Andy we We haven’t done one of these in a few weeks it has been a hot minute and uh a pretty hot day for one as well yeah nice warm day out here for Ohio State football camp ohio State uh very much in the heart of June recruiting season and we’ve been out here covering both camps but we’re also here today at Woody Hayes Athletic Center for a Ross Buork press conference that was uh quite long quite informative i think it went about an hour of 15 minutes uh Ross Bork uh talking about the newly approved house settlement revenue sharing how that’s all going to go into effect for Ohio State a lot of kind of state of Ohio State type stuff too uh a lot of questions about some of the hot topics that have surrounded Ohio State and college sports lately whether that be uh kickoff times whether that be college football playoff expansion uh Big 10 expansion uh what what have you it was a it was a lot of a lot of ground covered today in that 75minute press conference which you’ll be able to watch on our YouTube channel we won’t talk about all of it here but we’ll talk about some of the key points and I think probably the biggest one starting with uh Ross Bork revealing what Ohio State’s revenue sharing plan is going to be there’s that 20.5 million cap that’s out there that has been created by the settlement now $2.5 million of that is going to be allotted to the 91 additional scholarships that that Ohio State has added from where it was at last year the rules of this new settlement state that if you add new scholarships from the previous roster limits that those up to $2.5 million count against that $20.5 million cap and so that leaves $18 million for Ohio State to directly share revenue with its athletes and Ohio State has decided it’s going to go with just four sports to start revenue sharing football men’s basketball women’s basketball women’s volleyball football obviously Russ Buick did not get into the specific numbers but I think it’s fair to assume the majority of that money is going to go to football players it is by far the biggest revenue driver for the university men’s basketball is the second biggest revenue driver but you’ve got title nine requirements that you’ve got to satisfy so that’s why women’s basketball women’s volleyball while they don’t generate quite as much revenue as men’s basketball does you look at them in terms of women’s sports they’re the most revenue generating women’s sports therefore they have been chosen to also be included in this revenue sharing and so I thought that was interesting to hear because we hadn’t really heard before today how exactly Ohio State was going to do this in terms of sharing revenue we weren’t sure if it was going to be across a wide variety of sports but now Russ Bork making it clear that Ohio State’s really going to focus on kind of a more narrow group of sports even though he strongly reiterated today that Ohio State will keep all 36 sports right and I I think one of the interesting things to hear him talk about too is kind of how this affects the broader landscape and how other schools like it’s going to be about finding the best approach to this new system schoolto school uh talking about $18 million right two and a half going to scholarships indications from Ross were a lot of other schools that’s going to be the format as well ohio State adding that number of 91 new scholarships and that’s similar to what other schools are doing so how do you employ that $18 million then how do you incorporate NIL into it it was a lot of interesting discussion too about how the NIL model is going to work going forward with the improvements with the regulations and the different stipulations that were made in the House settlement uh the review committees that now have to approve these NIL deals for athletes and with the Buckeye Sports Group forming the partnership between the Ohio State Athletics Department and Lefield that’s going to drive a lot of oversee a lot of Ohio State’s NIL deals for its athletes going forward or all of them actually bringing them all under one umbrella which I I I think is a great idea ross talked about that was the aim was to bring it all under one umbrella so you could manage it give resources to athletes to manage it but it’s also going to make sure that all of Ohio State’s NIL dealings are above board in the sense that the House settlement uh calls for and so I I think hearing Ross dive into some of those details too of how now you’re going to balance the revenue sharing direct payment of athletes from the athletic department with NIL now coming under Ohio State’s own washable eye and we’ve talked about it for years this was always what made the most sense in terms of how athletes should be paid it should be they should be getting a direct cut of a revenue that schools make and all of this NIL stuff uh payment stuff the school should be overseeing it there shouldn’t be this required delineation of NIL has to come from outside the school outside the revenue that these schools bring in and so I think you know this is all the logical next step that we all felt was going to happen sooner than later to where it’s no longer going to be this outside collector driven system that’s not to say that you know V Foundation V1 1870 Society the people who are involved with that are still going to have some involvement in this there’s still going to be those natural NIL deals of whether it’s Caleb DS or Jeremiah Smith or Bruce Thornton or Galani Cambridge or whoever it might be across Ohio State sports having the opportunity to go find endorsement deals for themselves that’s all still going to be a part of this but now instead of this really we’re funneling money to players but kind of sort of pretending we don’t actually have a hand in it now there is going to be that direct communication of hey this is how much money we have to all lot to our football team and this is how we’re going to distribute it to our players and you know to your point I mean one of one of the points that did come up was you know could this hurt Ohio State and say men’s basketball because you’re going to have schools out there you think of like a Kentucky or a Duke or a North Carolina or a Kansas they might choose to all lot a higher portion of their budget to men’s basketball whereas we know at Ohio State football is going to get the majority of that revenues because trying to win national championships in football is going to come above all else here in Columbus and so that’s going to be something that Ohio State’s going to have to navigate you know it’s fair to wonder like is this going to be a positive or a negative for Ohio State we don’t really know i mean the thing that makes it a positive for Ohio State is the fact that Ohio State generates more revenue than every other athletic department in the country and so that piece of a pie that Ohio State is sharing with the athletes is far smaller for Ohio State than it is for most other schools which means that Ohio State has more money to spend on everything else the the the downside of that is because of that cap you know where Ohio State could probably afford to spend even more on its athletes than most other schools you know that cap is going to level the playing field a little bit at least for that top group of schools that can afford to pay the maximum dollar amount and so we’re going to have to see a little bit over time whether this ends up being a positive or a negative for Ohio State but I think the good news is for Ohio State is I think they’ve got a very forwardthinking leader in Ross Bork who has been calling for a system like this for years who is ready to embrace this kind of system and who is going to make sure that Ohio State is aligned across its 36 sports across its administration to take advantage of this new system and to adapt as things continue to evolve right and I think it’s perfectly fair to commend Ross for what I I know both of us view as a very proactive move with the formation of Buckeye Sports Group to bring this all under the NIL umbrella and to your point I think it is going to be interesting to see even kind of zooming out beyond Ohio State you talk about school you know those big-time marquee basketball programs funneling money into those kinds of kinds of programs there are other schools you know they could do it in other sports where if you focus your NIL your revenue sharing resources primarily your revenue sharing resources now into one sport into one pursuit you can really make a lot of positive changes for your program in that area and of course it is still about having the right people in place to use those resources and I don’t want to get that lawsuit you know no amount of money can fix if you have a bad head coach of a program if you have bad administration no amount of money is going to fix that but it is a way to funnel resources behind a program that you believe in and that you think you can build and maybe have success in where you didn’t in the past so I’m excited to see how that impacts the national landscape beyond a lot of this revenue sharing and IO conversation I think huge sticking point for Ohio State fans the past year with all the noon games that happened last year i think a lot of fans will probably agree with Ross Bork when he said today that Ohio State fans deserve more marquee night games the unfortunate side of that is it doesn’t sound like there’s a lot of maneuverability from Ohio State and that’s something we’ve kind of talked about before when it comes to the current deal that the Big 10 has with Fox um Fox is pretty much set on that noon window it’s been great for their business model ohio State has propped up that business model in a lot of ways by having so many marquee games on big noon kickoff but the under the current contract structure it is hard but Ross Bork still the main word that he used today was flexibility he wants more options more flexibility for Ohio State to have some of these night games i think we can all agree that this game against Texas which is going to be a noon kickoff after everything that happened there uh really it feels like it should have been a night game ohio State fans deserved that to be a night game um but it’s it’s just where it’s at right now with this current TV deal and how much can Ross Bork really push Fox to get more night games for Ohio State russ Bork said it himself ohio State is carrying the day for Big Noon i mean you look at the Big Noon ratings its highest rated games almost all of them have included Ohio State and so you know Ross Buork recognizes that where a lot of the fans frustration is coming from is it’s like hey because of the way this contract is structured Ohio State just keeps getting selected to play these noon games and you know other schools that maybe aren’t making as much money from the conference are getting rewarded with more night games because of how the contract is set up and so you know I I think the good news for Ohio State fans is I think Ohio State has a leader in Ross Bork who recognizes it’s not fair to our fan base it’s not fair for us to not get more marquee home night games and so I think there’s certainly going to be a push from Ohio State the next time those TV contracts come up for hey there there’s got to be more flexibility as he called it built in could that be you know just more communication between the networks and the schools of hey we’re going to trade slots this week like hey there’s going to be some kind of clause built in where you know Fox can trade slots with NBC a certain amount of times per year and that could allow them to work together for then a big Ohio State game to be at night instead of noon that week i think that’s kind of what Ross was hinting at is in the next contract he would prefer it ohio State would prefer it if it’s not Fox has to be at noon every week cbs has to be at 3:30 every week nbc has to be at 7:30 every week because as he said the reality is Fox pays most of the money in this Big 10 TV deal so they are entitled to get the best games and because of how big a brand Ohio State is and how good Ohio State consistently is the Ohio State game very often is going to be the best game especially when Ohio State is playing another marquee opponent so the unfortunate reality for Ohio State fans is until this contract ends in I believe 2030 probably going to see a lot more more noon games but I I do think that you know Ross Buork he’s trying i mean he said that the idea of moving the Texas game really came to him back in November and so he’s trying to find ways to rectify this but the reality is the contract being written the way it is you know Ohio State fans are going to have to brace themselves for six more years of a lot of noon games because you know Fox the contract is what it is fox pays most of the money they’re going to want the best games on their network and a lot of times that’s going to be Ohio State so unless they somehow all come together to change this contract and and build more flexibility in you’re probably going to see the Buckeyes playing at noon a lot yeah build more flexibility in or maybe you change the structure of how the TV draft works a lot of people know or are aware of how like the networks draft different weekends fox has a lot of the high-end picks you know they get the first two picks in that draft and get to first three actually we got that wrong before that’s right first three picks in that draft and get to um really set the bar there so maybe it’s more of an exchange of picks between the networks maybe Fox allows other networks to trade up and get a marquee Ohio State game to put at night um there’s a lot of things that you can try to do behind the scenes but like you said for the most part it really is as long as this current contract is in place for six years it’s it that’s just where it is for Ohio State i think the other small thing to touch on too is the formation of the uh center for I got to remember exactly here strateg sports intelligence and strategy I something like that something like that that was formed uh formed today or the formation of it was announced today by Ohio State and I think we talked about we’ve talked throughout this conversation about Ross being forward thinking and I don’t want to overlook that formation of at center because or it’s not like a physical center as Ross explained it today it’s more like a collection of people who know how to manage these things but getting ahead of and a lot of it is data analytics and figuring out how to optimize rosters how to optimize sports performance how to optimize recruiting how to optimize scheduling um through data and analytics that I think in in today’s world that is so much of what drives decision- making and the best decisions is datainformed decisions we’ve seen analytics playing a bigger bigger role in major sports i think this is a great resource for coaches to come together on a unified front similar to Buckeye Sports Group I I really think Ohio State under Ross Bork right now is doing a really good job of being proactive with the modern climate that is coming out of the House settlement and and Ross Bjork said it even in terms of determining how they’re going to share revenue that those conversations are very metrics driven so yeah I think you know certainly you know they’re looking at the numbers i mean he’s he said it before he said it again today ohio State is the only school with a $300 million operating budget and so Ohio State is really spending all it can to to help put its teams in position to go compete for championships as we saw the football team do successfully this past season they’ve also got to keep looking for ways to generate more revenue and you know certainly that came up when Ross Bork was talking about college football playoff expansion and you know he he didn’t he didn’t come out and stump for a specific model the way we saw a lot of people in the SEC do over the last couple weeks but he has said you know he is in favor of expansion you know he mentioned one of the specific reasons is we need more content more games equals more TV money and so uh you know we we could clearly see the momentum moving toward 14 or 16 uh Ross Bork uh didn’t say really if he has a strong preference one way or the other on what that model should be i did think it was interesting when he was asked about non-conference games going forward like the big ones we’re going to see the next couple years between Texas you know Alabama on the schedule after that he was asked you know will you look to schedule more or less of those games going forward and his answer was TBD basically it’s going to depend on what this new playoff format looks like if this new playoff format is constructed in a way that rewards teams for better strength of schedule Ohio State will look to schedule more of those marquee games if the College Ball playoffs simply looks at your record where you’re 12-0 11-1 whatever then Ohio State’s probably going to play a lot of cupcakes in the non-conference schedule so I for one certainly hope that the college football playoff works toward building a format that rewards people for playing those big games cuz I know as we think about the season starting in about two and a half months it’s a heck of a lot more exciting building up to a game against Texas than it is building up to a game against a Oh absolutely and I I like just to echo that sentiment you know I really do hope that this a lot of it is too going to be defining a better committee structure and how the teams are selected for the college football playoff whenever the format changes not to say that you do away with a CFP committee or anything like that but just again it’s it’s got to be something that rewards strength of schedule because it’s good for all parties if teams are incentivized to schedule strong non-conference games it’s going to draw more viewership and more interest to the sport is going to get more revenue to the teams that are involved um but if you’re not incentivized to do it from a post speed season perspective why would you do it you know so you you have to that has to be a consideration as this new format is discussed and I also think Ross when he was asked about the SEC coming out and insisting on certain formats uh had a good approach to it basically said we should take a step back and discuss on the proper like in the proper channels in the proper ways about what the best format is come together and then move forward with it right so um that will be interesting obviously for the broader landscape of the sport so much is changing right now with the house settlement but you have that big change on the horizon too with CFP expansion it would make for better content if he just came out and said what he thinks the format should be but I but I get it i get it you know you want to kind of you know do these things in a certain way and that’s how the Big 10’s always operated you know the SEC’s it’s it’s kind of been a pattern for a long time the SEC tends to be kind of a more vocal conference the more out there i was like we’re the SEC like this is what we want and the Big 10’s always been kind of more the operating in the shadows like back channel conversations playing I think just an equally big role as the SEC in terms of driving what’s going to happen but not being as vocal not being as as outward about it so it’s going to be interesting to see how you know all of that ultimately plays out certainly going to be a big topic over the next year because you know we know you know for this year it’s going to stay at 12 teams they have changed the seating but as soon as next year we could potentially be looking at a 14 or 16 team college football playoff and so uh that’s certainly something I we heard Ryan Day say last week he thinks the Big 10 should get four automatic bids you that’s something the SEC’s been pushing for but we also heard a week or two ago the SEC kind of changes tune and say “Yeah maybe we just do five conference champs and 11 atlarges which may or may not work out better for the Big 10 SEC if you do it that way if you give them the opportunity to get as many bids as possible chances are good either way the Big 10 and the SEC are going to be the most well-represented conferences uh in uh the field to the chagrin of the ACC and uh the Big 12 and everyone else but uh that’s certainly a big talking point going forward here uh this summer and beyond in college sports before we wrap up gotta give a congratulations to Jerry Emig the longtime sports information director at Ohio State announced on Thursday but he will be retiring in March you know Andy for me I’m sure I think it’s the same for you it’s hard to even envision coming here being on the Ohio State beat and not seeing Jerry Emig because go dating back to when I was a student back in 2011 as a freshman he’s always been the football SID here so it’s going to be weird when we come back next spring next March and somebody else is leading those press conferences but certainly want to give our congratulations uh to Jerry he’ll still be around here for uh one more football season one last ride as uh the lead communications director for the Ohio State football team but someone who you know we’ve gotten to know very well over the course of his job uh someone who I think you know you talk about Jerry I think one of the first things people are gonna say about him is like how kind he is uh that he’s somebody who’s you know very friendly you know as a media member will you always agree with him no but you know he’s always uh you know very kind about it you know he’s somebody that you know I’ve enjoyed getting to know better and better over the years here on the job and you know I think there’s you know a lot of Jerryisms out there whether it’s you know the jar bargos or you know some of the things that he uh says in press conferences uh I I think we’re we’re going to we’re going to miss those moments of Jerry oh absolutely and you know again just want to emphasize you know the job component of it too it’s it’s like there’s you always it’s a delicate balance that he has has had to deal with over the years being a sports information director where the team wants a certain relationship with the media and the media wants a certain relationship with the team those things don’t always align and Jerry’s got to try to bridge that gap but um and I I think he’s done he’s been fantastic to work with with for me over the years um not again that we’ve always agreed on everything uh but certainly uh I’m certainly going to miss Jerry and especially for who he is like outside of the job and just the more you learn about him as a person the Big 10 did the whole series on um him and his son and raising his son which uh I I think if if you haven’t seen that before it’s worth checking out um about Jerry but going to miss him a lot and uh I guess we’ll see who tries to fill those shoes next year jerry Jerry knows if he doesn’t call on Andy in a press conference he gets a he gets a nice glare that’s happened a few times but he did he did call on you today but no you’re absolutely right and I mean I think that would be if if there’s one thing to say about Jerry probably the most important thing to say about Jerry is he’s an exemplary father uh with you know his son with uh all the challenges he’s had to deal with within his life uh you know Jerry has always put his family first and and has always uh been there for his son and provided his son the best life he could and so I think if there’s one thing you should know about Jerry it it’s that because uh for all the stuff we do in this job uh that’s more important than all of that and so uh once again want to wish Jerry well lots more content to come from recruiting camp here at Ohio State from Ross Bjork’s press conference much more as we kind of keep beating the drum here uh fubish summer it’s hard to believe Andy we’re already only a little bit more than a month away from going to Las Vegas for Big 10 Media Day you know when the season ends in January it’s like the off season flies right by so we are we are we approaching it pretty fast folks we’re only uh about two two and a half months away uh from that first football game uh Ohio State versus Texas so lots more to come on 11warriors.com for now he’s Andy Anders i’m Dan Hope this has been press coverage thanks for listening in
Eleven Warriors’ Dan Hope and Andy Anders returned to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Thursday to not only watch the latest Ohio State high school football camp but also participate in a lengthy press conference with Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork in which he discussed a wide variety of topics including Ohio State’s revenue sharing plans, his push for more home night games, what the Buckeyes’ future non-conference schedules could look like and much more.
In a new episode of Press Coverage, Dan and Andy share their thoughts on what Bjork had to say in Thursday’s “State of Ohio State” address as well as share their thoughts on outgoing sports information director Jerry Emig, who announced his retirement on Thursday.
The full rundown for the show:
0:00 Intro
1:14 Ohio State Entering Revenue Sharing Era with Tight Focus
8:59 Ross Bjork Wants More Night Games, But Might Have to Wait Until Next TV Contract
13:46 Center for Sports Intelligence & Strategy Shows Forward-Thinking Approach
15:41 Playoff Expansion Could Shape Future Non-Conference Schedules
20:19 What We Appreciate About Jerry Emig
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