In a meeting with the university’s board of trustees, Ohio State University’s athletic director said: Ross Bjork explained upcoming policy changes, many of which are a result of the court decision in House v. NCAA, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
While reiterating the university’s desire to keep all 36 of its varsity sports teams, Bjork said he expects the university will lose 150 student athletes to comply with the court ruling’s roster restrictions. He also said some varsity teams “…may start to act a little more like a club sport.”
House v. NCAA was filed by a former Arizona State swimmer Grant House in 2020. The antitrust lawsuit challenged the NCAA rule that prohibited student-athletes from profiting from their name, image and likeness (NIL). The ruling gave student-athletes more leeway to profit from their NIL. In addition, the ruling provided $2.8 billion in back pay to former student-athletes, allowed athletic departments to share revenue with student-athletes, lifted scholarship limits for teams, and imposed restrictions on roster size.
Bjork said athletic departments will use the ruling to guide policy and budgetary decisions in the near future. As for back pay, he believes most of the money will go to former men’s football and basketball players, the two most historically profitable college sports.
In 2025, Ohio State will remove scholarship limits per team and establish roster limits in accordance with the ruling. Bjork expects to lose about 150 student-athletes as a result of the rule changes. He explained that some teams may resemble club teams in their play, but will still travel and compete at the Division I level.
Ohio State has a women’s and men’s swimming team, both of which were runners-up at the 2024 Big Ten Conference Championship. The men’s team has 11 NCAA team titles to its credit, and recent graduates Hunter Armstrong is a two-time Olympic champion.
According to USA Today, Ohio State’s athletic department generated $251.6 million in revenue last fiscal year, ranking first in the nation. The athletic department has the second-highest revenue generated by an athletic department in a single year. The 36 sports sponsorships are more than double the 14 required by the NCAA for NCAA Division I membership and are among the highest sponsorships in the NCAA.
