Paul Finebaum shares thoughts on Ross Bjork hire at Ohio State

Ross Bjork is set to take over Ohio State‘s athletic director position this summer with the expectation of leading the Buckeyes to the forefront the new college athletics landscape.

Paul Finebaum has had a front row seat watching Bjork’s career at Texas A&M, and gave his thoughts on Ohio State’s newest hire to Letterman Row’s Tim May.

“He’s smart. He can be very calculating, which is good if you’re an ad in today’s world,” Finebaum told May. “And yeah, listen, I’ve read the criticism of him. And I’m not saying that Ross and I have ever had problems, we have, but he’s the kind of guy that will call you up and say, ‘Hey, you were wrong about this,’ and then you can figure it out from there.

“He was at Ole Miss and I got to know him well and get to know him even better at A&M. When you walk in Texas A&M, that is a monster place. You’ve got to deal with all of the old guard, the new guard and he did a fairly good job.”

Bjork was hired as Buckeyes AD earlier this month after spending four years at Texas A&M in the same role. He replaces longtime athletic director Gene Smith in Columbus, and will take full control of the athletic department when Smith leaves the program. According to initial report, Bjork will “step into a formal role at Ohio State” beginning in March as he wraps up his duties in College Station. He’ll take full control the athletic department beginning in July.

Before that, however, Bjork started his career in 1996 at Western Kentucky for two years. He moved to Missouri from 1997-2003 in a variety of roles as an assistant AD. Then in 2003, he became the associate AD at Miami for three years. In 2005, Bjork went out west to become the senior associate athletic director at UCLA. 

Once 2010 rolled around, Bjork became the youngest athletic director among FBS schools went he took over Western Kentucky upon his return. After three years, he moved onto Ole Miss where he served as AD from 2012-2019.

Now, Bjork will spearhead a Buckeye athletic department that is ready to dominate the new-look Big Ten Conference in 2024. On the gridiron, Ohio State will begin its 2024 regular season inside Ohio Stadium on Aug. 31 against in-state foe Akron before beginning conference play on Sept. 28 at Michigan State.