The reason Ohio State chose women's volleyball as one of four sports for revenue sharing

USA Today

7 days ago

The new House Settlement is going to be a game changer in how college athletics is managed and consumed. Name, Image and Likeness will still be a thing, but now that universities can pay athletes directly, there are some decisions to be made. What sports make up the bulk of the direct payments (roughly $20.5 Million) by each university, how do they allocate those funds, and can all of the current sports survive?
Those are the same questions Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjork has had to wrestle with as well, and he met with the media last week to discuss the strawman plan that OSU will be operating under the new parameters. Of course, the bulk of the money left over after all of the scholarships are funded will go to football, and to no one's surprise either, some of that money will go to men's and women's basketball -- two other revenue generating sports -- but there's one other sport Ohio State decided to fund through direct payments, and that one is a little bit of a surprise to some when the roughly $18 Million allocated after funding scholarships is available to distribute.
To be equitable, you had a feeling (and rightfully so) that another women's sport would be in the mix, but no, it's not softball, an extremely fast-growing sport that other colleges are sure to pour money into, but rather, women's volleyball. That might be a head scratcher for many, but according to Bjork, there is reasoning behind including women's volleyball into the model.
'We think, with the attention that our program can receive, we think the Columbus market, volleyball is a booming sport,' Bjork said. '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.'
It's true that volleyball is huge in the Big Ten. Teams like Penn State and Nebraska have a rabid following, and it's clear the brass at Ohio State believe the same can be true in Columbus.
Head coach Jen Flynn Oldenburg is excited to have the women's volleyball team included, saying it'll allow her staff to attract some of the better talent available to come to the banks of the Olentangy and be a part of building and maintaining something.
'To be one of four sets the tone for the conference and our program,' Oldenburg said in a press conference. 'Volleyball is big in the Big Ten, and in order to compete, you have to keep up with the big dogs. By saying we're one of the four at Ohio State to get revenue share, we're going to compete with the big dogs.'
As we all know, and have seen across college athletics, though, money to bring in talent can only get you so far. You have to be able to identify the right talent, take it and build a culture, develop it into better players, and get the collection of bodies to work together to achieve a goal as a cohesive team.
It'll be interesting to see where the Ohio State women's volleyball team goes from here. It's a good thing to be included in the revenue sharing, but it does put a lot of pressure on the program and staff to produce results.
The clock is now ticking and eyes are watching.
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