In a meeting with the university’s Board of Trustees, Ohio State University athletic director Ross Bjork explained upcoming policy changes, many of which stem from the House v. NCAA court decision, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
While Bjork affirmed the University’s desire to retain all 36 of its varsity sports teams, he expects the university to lose 150 student-athletes in compliance with the court decision’s roster limits.
University President Ted Carter also said that some varsity teams “…may start to act a little bit more like a club sport.”
House v. NCAA was filed by former Arizona State swimmer Grant House in 2020. The antitrust lawsuit challenged the NCAA rule that restricted student-athletes in profiting from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). The ruling gave student-athletes more leeway to profit from their NIL. Additionally, the ruling mandated $2.8 billion in back payment to former student-athletes, permitted athletic departments to revenue share with student-athletes, eliminated team scholarship limits, and imposed roster size limits.
According to Bjork, athletic departments will use the ruling as a roadmap for policy and budget decisions in the near future. With respect to back payments, he believes most money will go to former men’s football and basketball players, the two historically most profitable college sports.
In 2025, Ohio State will remove scholarship limits per team and impose roster limits in compliance with the ruling. Bjork expects to lose approximately 150 student-athletes as a consequence of the rule changes. He stated that some teams may begin to resemble club teams in operation but still travel and compete at the Division I level.
Ohio State has a women’s and a men’s varsity swim team, both of which were the runner-ups at the 2024 Big Ten Conference Championship. The men’s team has 11 NCAA team titles to their name, and recent alumna Hunter Armstrong is a two-time Olympic gold medalist.
According to the USA Today, Ohio State’s athletic department generated $251.6 million in revenue in the last fiscal year, ranking it first in the nation and the second highest revenue ever earned by an athletic department in a single year. Its 36 sport sponsorship is more-than-double the 14 mandated by the NCAA for NCAA Division I membership and one of the highest varsity sponsorship counts in the NCAA.
A previous version of this article misattributed a quote from Ted Carter to Ross Bjork. This has been corrected.
