Ohio State Reverses Course, Says They Won’t Cut Scholarships in Face of House Settlement

A few weeks after deciding to cut scholarships for a handful of their 36 intercollegiate athletics programs, Ohio State president Ted Carter said on Friday that the school would not only retain all of those sports, but retain scholarships for all of them.

“When I hired (athletic director) Ross Bjork, he and I decided right away that we would retain all 36 Division I sports programs,” Carter said in an interview with Eleven Warriors. “It’s important. We have over 1,000 student athletes. It’s important for our Olympic sports that we do this. Not many other schools are going to be able to do this. And we will remain financially self-sufficient. That’s no small order, because we’re going to be sharing a fair bit of our revenue with our student-athletes. And finally, we’re going to retain scholarships for all 36 Division I sports.

“We will determine how best to do that. There’s a lot of big decisions to be made. But these decisions will help shape the conversation about how we can make sure that our student-athletes remain students first.”

About a month ago, local Columbus media reported that the men’s gymnastics program was told that they would no longer be able to offer athletic scholarships to student-athletes, with other sources telling SwimSwam that they were one of several sports to be told the same, including artistic (synchronized) swimming.

The context is comments in August by Ohio State’s new athletics director Ross Bjork that rosters would be cut and some sports would ‘act a little bit more like a club sport’ as part of a new tiered athletics department for the Buckeyes. Bjork said that the school would retain all 36 athletics programs at that time. Ohio State is one of the most robust athletics departments in the country in terms of the number of sports it offers.

The breadth of varsity athletics offerings is a big differentiator between the two superconferences emerging in the NCAA. The Big Ten offers 28 championships while the SEC only offers 22; and beyond that, most Big Ten schools offer far more varsity sports than most Big Ten schools.

18 Big Ten member schools sponsor 396 sports, averaging 22 sports per school. 16 SEC schools sponsor 268 sports, an average of 16.75 per school.

In the latest rankings from USA Today, Ohio State was the richest athletics department in the country, earning $251,615,345 in the 2023 fiscal year. They also spent a record amount of money: $225,733,418.

The Ohio State women’s swim team won four straight Big Ten titles before losing to Indiana last season. The Ohio State men also finished 2nd behind the Hoosiers.

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SpringboardCreative
29 days ago

I ran the numbers so you wouldn’t have to.

Using OSU as the example with current rosters.
They would have to cut 44 men’s spots (assuming swim/dive is 30) which actually includes 18 from football. Their women’s rosters are technically able to ADD 9, but that is in large part because the limit for rowing is 68(!!!) and they currently carry 43. If you assume that roster holds as is, they need to cut 16 women’s roster spots just to meet the new NCAA limits. Those cuts would put them pretty close on balance on for Title IX with 900 total athletes.

If you flip to the SEC, Alabama, for example, will need to cut 67 men’s spots (assuming… Read more »

Swimws
1 month ago

OSU has been known to say one thing and do the other. They will be cutting sports in the next few years.

swimgeek
1 month ago

…for now

Spieker Pool Lap Swimmer
1 month ago

Quarter of a billion dollar organization graciously announces it will keep offering a few hundred thousand dollars in athletic scholarships. Such a victory.

Free Thinker
Reply to  Spieker Pool Lap Swimmer
1 month ago

They only have $250m in the bank? I find that hard to believe. The endowment has to be several x that number

Parent of former D1 swimmer
Reply to  Free Thinker
1 month ago

250 mil is annual revenue from sports (football).

Orange Mandela
1 month ago

Good decision, Buckeyes!

Lane9
1 month ago

This is preemptive … more and/or changes to come.

Grant house sucks
1 month ago

Rumor has it Big 12 roster caps will be at 24. Mid majors introducing roster caps as well

Morgantown Enthusiast
Reply to  Grant house sucks
1 month ago

Only 24 for men in the big 12? Was expecting the full 30.

This Guy
Reply to  Grant house sucks
1 month ago

Seems like that is the limit that the big conferences are leaning toward

Morgantown Enthusiast
Reply to  This Guy
1 month ago

Just doesn’t make sense to me why the NCAA and the power 4 is eliminating walk-ons

swimgeek
Reply to  Morgantown Enthusiast
1 month ago

I’m don’t fully understand it either *unless all varsity athletes* are going to get some money outside of traditional scholarship money. If every varsity athlete costs them more than just a couple of swim suits, then it makes more sense to me.

Kevdawg
Reply to  Braden Keith
1 month ago

SEC football has been speculated to set a scholarship limit caps of 85, but could still keep 105 athletes on the roster to satisfy the cap from House/NCAA. The last 20 in this scenario would be walk-ons. This calculation gets tricky for the partial scholarship approach to Olympic Sports, as any partials count against the total. I would still guess, something less than 30 for the scholarship cap, but not for the roster cap, but sounds like something else is floating out there…

PFA
Reply to  Grant house sucks
1 month ago

I do wonder what the Ivy’s & patriot league will do with this?

Breezeway
1 month ago

Those costs will be passed down to regular student tuition fees

Bob
Reply to  Breezeway
1 month ago

Those costs?….It says sports make 250 million and pay 225.Thats a profit of 25 million.Don,t see the problem.

DII Swammer
Reply to  Breezeway
1 month ago

Ohio State is one of the few schools where the athletic department gives money to the school’s general scholarship fund every year. I would guess that donation is where part of the scholarship money will come from.

This Guy
Reply to  Breezeway
1 month ago

It’s going to be interesting to see how schools and their athletic departments interact in the next 5-10 years. Will we see a decoupling from the universities and their athletic departments? Or will they get more intertwined?

The revenue sports only really need the name if they begin operating like semi-pro leagues and the schools want the attention and recognition that sports bring. If revenue sports start to bring in the type of money that is out there there might be a strong incentive for Football for instance just to break away from any educational association.

If you project out a bit and follow the probably path of money, I’m willing to bet that within 15-20 years we see… Read more »

BWPolo
Reply to  Breezeway
1 month ago

Yup, already are. These types of articles are coming out weekly.
Poor Tennessee increases tix fees and $150 per student per semester fee:
https://www.si.com/fannation/name-image-likeness/nil-news/college-football-fans-largely-footing-the-bill-for-colleges-and-nil

Florida schools asking taxpayers for NIL money to “be competitive”:
https://cbs12.com/news/local/exclusive-could-taxpayer-dollars-be-directed-to-nil-compensation-at-florida-colleges-universities-players-pay-collective-football-basketball-baseball-soccer-sports-november-1-2024

There is no indication that anything will get “better” for any non-revenue college sport. Ever. None of this money will go to swimming or pay coaches better or improve facilities. Clemson also added a $150 student fee.
https://swimswam.com/clemson-to-close-mchugh-natatorium-indefinitely/

But they will congratulate themselves on making more money every year for football:
https://bvmsports.com/2024/03/15/how-clemson-football-performed-financially-in-fy2023/

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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