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Ohio State makes plan for allocating revenue-sharing dollars following House settlement

Spencer-Holbrookby: Spencer Holbrook06/12/25SpencerHolbrook
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(Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

COLUMBUS — Ohio State is set to begin sharing the full $20.5 million the House settlement allows it to share with college athletes in direct payments.

Under the new settlement framework, the athletic department will pay $2.5 million in 91 new scholarships to its athletes across all sports. The other $18 million will be distributed directly to athletes across four sports that were determined by Ohio State.

The athletic department has determined the four sports that will receive revenue-sharing money will be football — of course — men’s basketball, women’s basketball and women’s volleyball.

While Bjork did not specify how much of the money or what percentages will go to each of those four sports, he did make sure to speak about why those four sports were chosen.

“We really try to use metrics in a formula, while also balancing some Title IX approach in this as well. You know, last year, numbers create narratives, right?” Bjork said, declining to give numbers and dollar amounts out after his comment about the $20 million football roster became a narrative last year. “People want to run with numbers, and this is how much this is. The key point in all of this is this is more opportunity for athletes than ever before, directly from the institution. And so we’re not going to get into calculating how much this program gets or that program, but it’s four sports. It’s $18 million cash, and then that’ll grow by 4% a year. And then it can also have a look in period based on, you know, new revenues that come into to college athletics. So that’s how we set it up.

“Those are the four sports that we start with. We hope we can grow that. We hope we can expand. We’ll continue to work within that.”

The football program is the most obvious beneficiary of the new model; Ohio State was always going to prioritize its football over all other sports in the athletic department — as it should. And the men’s and women’s basketball programs were easy choices as well because they’re money-making sports with potential to win big.

But the fourth sport could have been the rising softball program, the women’s ice hockey team that has made three straight national title game appearances with two wins or even swim and dive. Instead, Ohio State is choosing to spend on women’s volleyball.

Bjork sees a lot of potential in the women’s volleyball program, especially in a league that features national powers such as Penn State, Nebraska and Wisconsin, among others.

“The sport’s really popular,” he said. “The Big Ten is a leader in women’s volleyball. We want to get better. You know, Coach Jen [Flynn Oldenburg] is working on a plan to get us back on track. And so we think with the attention that our program can can receive, we think the Columbus market — volleyball is a booming sport. The Covelli Center is an amazing atmosphere. So we thought volleyball could be a sport that could drive more revenue, but also the attention that it gets within the Big Ten.”

With those four sports, Ohio State has a set plan on what it wants from its $20.5 million revenue-sharing allotment.

Football will always be king, but the athletic department has four sports it is putting its weight behind — with the potential to expand to other sports in the future depending on circumstances.

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