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Without publicly accessible data, it’s a challenge at best to ascertain how much college athletic programs are spending on their rosters.
Internally, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork knows what dollar amounts are marked for which players on the 2026-27 men’s basketball team. As for how that compares to the schools coach Jake Diebler is competing with in the Big Ten and beyond, Bjork offered a guess.
“By all accounts, we’re sitting here on June 25, we should be a lot better next year,” Bjork said. “Nobody really knows that the numbers are. They’re reported out there and we can read social media, but you don’t really know. I do believe that we are in a competitive spot based on this past offseason.”
That was the message from Bjork at a press conference held inside the Jack Nicklaus Museum on Ohio State’s campus. The school’s athletic director spent the better part of an hour fielding questions about federal legislation impacting college athletics, planned renovations to school facilities and the future direction of college football.
When asked where the men’s basketball team sits compared to its Big Ten brethren in the era of revenue sharing payments, Bjork said the roster for the upcoming season shows that the Buckeyes are competitive from a financial standpoint.
Ohio State Buckeyes: 5 observations from Ohio State's early summer practices
“I think coach Diebler’s done a great job of putting together the right coaching staff, which then leads to the right roster building and development,” he said. “I think the pieces that were added, the pieces that were retained, that was a big part of it – retaining the right guys. Obviously signing someone like (freshman) Anthony Thompson was a big deal. That hasn’t happened around here in a while. I think Jake’s done a great job.
“If we’ve done a great job there, that means the resources are there to compete at a high level.”
Thompson, a five-star forward, is Ohio State’s highest-rated freshman since Jared Sullinger in 2010 and the first five-star signee since D’Angelo Russell in 2014.
Entering the second year of the revenue-sharing era, Ohio State has more money to directly spend compared to year one. The university will be able to allocate $21.3 million (up from $18 million) entirely to the teams it chooses to pay, which in Ohio State’s case means football, men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball.
The lion’s share of that will go to football, but Bjork said that there is “more cash from the institution side in the rev share bucket for basketball” but did not indicate whether that meant a higher percentage of funds or simply a lump increase.
The athletic department is also collecting data from fans about the future of the Schottenstein Center, Ohio State’s cavernous arena with a capacity of 18,809 when arranged for a student section. It’s the largest arena in the Big Ten and has the ninth-largest capacity in the nation and is also utilized for campus events and hosting concerts.
“Can you ever shrink it down to where it’s more intimate (for basketball)? Probably not,” Bjork said. “The building is the building. It serves a great purpose outside of basketball, so we have to maintain that piece of it while also making sure that if we do some construction, what does that mean?”
The survey was primarily designed to see if the university can find a way to add experiential or different premium seating options to fans, he said.
Last season, Ohio State averaged 11,252 fans per home game, the second-lowest single-season average since the arena opened for the 1998-99 season. Bjork said sellouts are not the expectation but that there is a threshold he’d like the arena to consistently reach in order to build a better atmosphere.
“If we’re in that 12-16,000 attendance per game, I think it can be the right atmosphere,” he said. “Then maybe every now and then it does sell out, but if we have most of the upper bowl filled, it’s a great atmosphere, and then the lower bowl is filled.”
Ohio State topped 12,000 fans in five of its 17 home games in 2025-26.
Ohio State men's basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at [email protected], on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State AD Bjork believes men's basketball is financially competitive
Continue reading...
Internally, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork knows what dollar amounts are marked for which players on the 2026-27 men’s basketball team. As for how that compares to the schools coach Jake Diebler is competing with in the Big Ten and beyond, Bjork offered a guess.
“By all accounts, we’re sitting here on June 25, we should be a lot better next year,” Bjork said. “Nobody really knows that the numbers are. They’re reported out there and we can read social media, but you don’t really know. I do believe that we are in a competitive spot based on this past offseason.”
That was the message from Bjork at a press conference held inside the Jack Nicklaus Museum on Ohio State’s campus. The school’s athletic director spent the better part of an hour fielding questions about federal legislation impacting college athletics, planned renovations to school facilities and the future direction of college football.
When asked where the men’s basketball team sits compared to its Big Ten brethren in the era of revenue sharing payments, Bjork said the roster for the upcoming season shows that the Buckeyes are competitive from a financial standpoint.
Ohio State Buckeyes: 5 observations from Ohio State's early summer practices
“I think coach Diebler’s done a great job of putting together the right coaching staff, which then leads to the right roster building and development,” he said. “I think the pieces that were added, the pieces that were retained, that was a big part of it – retaining the right guys. Obviously signing someone like (freshman) Anthony Thompson was a big deal. That hasn’t happened around here in a while. I think Jake’s done a great job.
“If we’ve done a great job there, that means the resources are there to compete at a high level.”
Thompson, a five-star forward, is Ohio State’s highest-rated freshman since Jared Sullinger in 2010 and the first five-star signee since D’Angelo Russell in 2014.
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Entering the second year of the revenue-sharing era, Ohio State has more money to directly spend compared to year one. The university will be able to allocate $21.3 million (up from $18 million) entirely to the teams it chooses to pay, which in Ohio State’s case means football, men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball.
The lion’s share of that will go to football, but Bjork said that there is “more cash from the institution side in the rev share bucket for basketball” but did not indicate whether that meant a higher percentage of funds or simply a lump increase.
The athletic department is also collecting data from fans about the future of the Schottenstein Center, Ohio State’s cavernous arena with a capacity of 18,809 when arranged for a student section. It’s the largest arena in the Big Ten and has the ninth-largest capacity in the nation and is also utilized for campus events and hosting concerts.
“Can you ever shrink it down to where it’s more intimate (for basketball)? Probably not,” Bjork said. “The building is the building. It serves a great purpose outside of basketball, so we have to maintain that piece of it while also making sure that if we do some construction, what does that mean?”
The survey was primarily designed to see if the university can find a way to add experiential or different premium seating options to fans, he said.
You must be registered for see images attach
Last season, Ohio State averaged 11,252 fans per home game, the second-lowest single-season average since the arena opened for the 1998-99 season. Bjork said sellouts are not the expectation but that there is a threshold he’d like the arena to consistently reach in order to build a better atmosphere.
“If we’re in that 12-16,000 attendance per game, I think it can be the right atmosphere,” he said. “Then maybe every now and then it does sell out, but if we have most of the upper bowl filled, it’s a great atmosphere, and then the lower bowl is filled.”
Ohio State topped 12,000 fans in five of its 17 home games in 2025-26.
Ohio State men's basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at [email protected], on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State AD Bjork believes men's basketball is financially competitive
Continue reading...
