Ohio State’s AD wants the college football calendar to change: Buckeye Breakfast
He expressed that desire with leaders of the College Football Playoff on Tuesday as the future format of the postseason continues to be a point of discussion, according to a report from ESPN.
Bjork was joined by the other three athletics directors — Notre Dame’s Pete Bevacqua, Texas’ Chris Del Conte and Penn State’s Pat Kraft — whose schools made the 2024 CFP semifinals to provide feedback on the format during a portion of the annual CFP spring meetings.
When asked if there was a major point he wanted to make, Bjork voiced his desire for a new calendar.
“We’ve had so many disruptions over the last five-plus years that I think the time is now to not be reactive, be proactive,” Bjork told ESPN. “When we had this setting here with the commissioners, our job was to provide feedback on what was it like to go through the 12-team playoff … but it all gets impacted by the calendar.
“I felt it was important to lay that out with everyone in the room to say, separate from the CFP process, if we don’t fix our calendar as an industry, then we’re going to continue to have unintended consequences.”
Ohio State was impacted by an oddly-time series of events during its national title run last season.
The winter window of the transfer portal was in full force while coach Ryan Day and his staff were actively preparing for postseason games.
OSU’s spring semester also started on Jan. 6, forcing the Buckeyes to apply for waivers around the countable athletically related activities — which caps practice time to 20 hours per week while classes are in session.
Texas, OSU’s opponent in the semifinals on Jan. 10, started classes later, giving the Longhorns an advantage in Bjork’s eyes.
Bjork also advocated for fall sports to have a 10-day portal window in May. The pending House settlement is part of the reasoning for that timeline as most revenue-sharing contracts between athletes and schools are likely to run from July 1-June 30.
“And everyone has to follow the rules,” Bjork said, “and agree that this is the structure, which we have to. If we don’t do that, then what good is the settlement?”
