Texas A&M AD Ross Bjork talks firing Jimbo Fisher and eating $76M he's guaranteed (FULL INTERVIEW)

So Ross uh just to get at the elephant in the room. I, is there any amount of money the university could offer you to walk away from your job right now? Well, I guess uh I guess we all have contracts. Um So there are certain numbers in uh in individual contracts that you look at. But for me, I'm so passionate about college athletics. I'm really a product of college athletics at a much smaller level playing division two football. So the no, there's no amount of money that would just, you know, step away from this passion and the energy that happens on a college campus. Yeah, as you, as you came to this decision was everyone who mattered on board. Well, the way I look at it in, in leadership, if you pursue 100% agreement, then you're doomed for failure no matter what. So I know in this role as an athletic director that every year you're probably gonna make decisions and people aren't gonna like it and you lose some equity, equity with those people along the way. And you just have to understand that if you use the filter, what is in the best interest of the institution, the athletic program, the football program, whatever it might be and then what is best for the student athletes and the future? If someone disagrees with that, I can't control that. So if you want 100% agreement, then don't make any decisions and that becomes worse. Buy in from. Yeah. So basically I, I report to the president of the university Mark. We is a phenomenal leader, four star general. He was named interim back in late July here at Texas A and M. He reports to the chancellor of the A and M system, John Sharp. So I made my recommendation after I did the analysis came to a conclusion, this is not working, locate the money, figure out the financial piece of it recommended to him. Then he and I recommended to Chancellor Sharp and then there was a discussion among the border regions, something of this magnitude. Of course, the regions are going to have an opinion that's their fiduciary responsibility. They wanted to understand the financial ramifications, they wanted to understand what would happen next in terms of process and procedures. And so there was no vote of the regions. It was my decision, my recommendation, President, we agreed you take that the chancellor sharp. He agreed, let's have the regent discussion and you roll out from there. So the decision making tree essentially started with me and it flows to uh the leadership here at the university break down how these payments will be made because you've got the lump sum and then you've got the annual payments. Yeah, the, the numbers are widely reported. It's, you know, roughly $76 million paid out over time, but there is installments due here in the next 120 days. So the first one is due in 60 days and that's 25% of the contract. And then the first installment on the eight year payments is due 60 days after that. So you pretty much have two lump sum payments here in the next 100 and 20 days. And then after that, the rest of the payments over the next seven years go into our athletic budget. We've already found ways to already reduce expenses and then we have some new revenues coming our way. So identifying the one time funds within the 12th Man Foundation and looking at, uh, and helping with, uh, you know, identify those funds in, in reserve accounts and discretionary accounts. They had to authorize that piece of it, which their mission is to raise money for athletics. And then we had to analyze our budget and say, can we make this work? And the answer was yes. And so that's how it's gonna map out. How do you find new revenue short of winning national championships or, or making the college football playoff revenues are coming in in all different categories, right. So you have sponsorship revenue that. We're getting ready to redo our sponsorship agreement with Lear Field. We uh we have a new concession agreement that will come into play in fall of 24. We sold out a season tickets for this, this season, but we also play Texas and Notre Dame and LSU next year at home. We think there's going actually going to be a lift on value of our ticket market. We sold 40,000 student season tickets. We think we can sell a little bit more and have some capacity for, for more sales there as well. So you look at all those different buckets. And then in the fall of 24 we have a new TV agreement within the SEC. We're gonna be solely on, on Disney. So ABC ESPN, the ESPN Family of networks, the SEC network has been tremendous. That value goes up that new deal kicks in next year. New deal kicks in in the fall of 24 with, with SEC expansion, you know, coming in fall of 24. So there's gonna be upside in all kinds of different categories. But I think there's also gonna be an upside because people are now excited that there is a new direction and there is some hope. And one thing about Aggie is if they believe in a plan and they believe in a vision and there's some excitement they will help the program financially and it's our job to be good stewards of that. And that's what we have to learn from, uh, going backwards is, you know, we can't make the same mistakes again. But let's move forward and let's identify how this program can excel. Will there be any adjustments to the department's budget? Yes, there will be adjustments to the athletic department budget. We've already found money within the football budget, but we can still have a championship level budget and then there's other things that are gonna be fluid. What's the new staff look like? What's the new head coach compensation look like? Is there other adjustments that we can make on the expense side? Because we don't have as many people that, that need to support football because the new coach has a different philosophy and how he runs it. So those things are gonna be fluid, but we've already identified a significant number. Um When we made this transition, where specifically will you make those cuts? It's really in the, in the staffing of football, our staff pool for the entire football program was over 13 million other programs in the SEC in the power five are in the 9 to 10.5 range and they're competing at a high level. So if you just take that number right there, there could be 2.5 to $3 million. That that's one example, the way we operate the program, whether it's travel, our program under coach Fisher was leaving on Thursday nights. And so that's added hotel rooms, that's added meals, everybody else leaves on Friday for a road game. So there's a number there. So those kind of things, we can be really smart and really efficient and still win a lot of games because there still are a lot of resources here at Texas A and M. And those are the things that we'll, we'll analyze moving forward, will, will that naturally mean some job cuts for us in athletics, there's no plans to cut any jobs. Um, the way we'll look at it within the football program is we'll sit out with a new coach and say, here's all the positions that we did have. Here's how we think we can live moving forward. What do you think you need? What's the right structure? We think there'll be positions that just won't exist. And so most of those people have probably moved on at that point in time. And so that's the only thing that we'll look at is only in the football department, the rest of the athletic department, there will not be any jobs eliminated because of any sort of buyouts or any sort of, uh, you know, other, other decisions that were made. And those, those areas are non coaching, right? Those are personnel who support the program in, in various off field capacities, analysts, you know, recruiting positions, operational positions, those kind of things is those are the things that the, the new head coach will help us really map out what's the right plan and most of the people that we've already talked to have said, I wanna be more efficient. I wanna do actually more with less meaning everybody's gonna be on the same page. You don't have a lot of voices in the room. And so that's, that's how we'll approach, uh, you know, working with a new head coach. The, um, oo, obviously, when you look at, um, when you look at the money, when you look at going to the booth, A A and M has no shortage of wealthy generous alumni and boosters. But do you worry if you hit up an alum for however many millions of dollars to help pay for the buy out, they don't have commensurate money to also give back to the program. Yeah, when you, when you approach these situations, it's, it's really, really difficult to ask somebody to pay, buy out money. And so that's not what we did here. In this case, we found money that was already committed, that was discretionary, that was flexible money essentially in reserve accounts that were discretionary funds that were given in the past. And so we're allowed to steward those gifts. We're allowed to have that money set there for future needs. So that's how we use that money. I don't believe it's really prudent to go to a donor and ask them to buy a coach out of his contract. However, when you look at transition costs for the new coach. That's where people have excitement. Every new coach has some small project and we need to redo the locker room or we need to redo the lobby or we need to add some recruiting graphics. People get excited about those things. So that's how we'll approach it is. We'll go out and we'll say this is our new coach. We have these initiatives. We'd like people to give. And I think the excitement that can be created with a new coach, that's where people will, will contribute. But going backwards, people don't want to look backwards. They want to know. Did you have a plan to handle it? Yes, we did. What's it look like moving forward with excitement and, you know, stability with a new coach and a new innovation and, and really just a new plan, that's where people will, will see that vision and, and they'll, they'll give to your program when, when you sign coach Fisher to the extension, why was there no offset? So if this doesn't work out, you get a $10 million a year payout. But if you get another job that's paying you $5 million a year, we'll make up the difference. Wh why no, why no offset? We, we need to go to the NFL model in college sports. Uh The NFL does it that way with the, the mitigation, the offset the collegiate model, really this started, I would say 5 to 6 to 7 years ago. And so you really, you have to go back to when Coach Fisher was hired here, he was hired here on a 10 year contract, fully guaranteed. No buy out if he left. So we inherited that the mechanics of that contract. When we did the extension, there was no way to go backwards. And so our message back then was look, we need long term continuity. We have momentum. Went to the Orange Bowl won nine sec games. Number one class was, was looming. We knew that was coming. Let's lock this up for security. So the 10 year window was already established, the no offset was already established, the fully guarantee was already established. And so those parameters were what we had to work with. We knew the market was gonna change in the sec. Somebody was gonna come calling, they did. But because we are proactive, we kept coach Fisher. I know what the reaction would have been if he would have left, right. So for wherever, so we know what that reaction would have been at that time. And so the information we had was let's do an extension. We know this is coming and that was a decision that was made and I take responsibility for all of that. I'm the athletic director for good and bad right decisions happen and you've got to deal with it and you've got to just say this is what it is. It was a mistake as we look back on it. But the information we had, we went with it and it was the right decision at that time. And looking back, it didn't work having had this as a learning experience. Would you ever give a fully guaranteed deal with no offset to me as we look forward, somebody has to earn that incentive based performance based. So what we're doing is looking at a much different type of contract as we go out in the coaching market. And we've actually received great feedback on that people that believe in themselves if they have a plan and they believe in themselves and they, they really believe that ex Texas A and M has all these resources. Ok, let's match that up with an incentive based contract. So that's how we're looking at. Of course, there's gonna be a base salary. There always is. But incentive based, the really neat thing about what the future of college football holds is the CFP expansion going to a 12 team playoff allows you to structure it based on tiers within the playoff, right? If you're a host or you make the playoff, here's a number. If you make the semifinals, here's a number. So we're actually putting that kind of plan together and I think we can be really creative. And so far the feedback has been absolutely, I know I can win a national championship at A and M I believe in myself, you match that up to contract terms. And so that's how we're looking at it as we move into this cycle in some ways though. When you see it also puts more pressure on the next coach because it's easier to say only four teams in the entire country are gonna make this playoff. I didn't make it versus 12 teams will make it and I didn't make it. I think your margin for error is greater now, right? You could be a 23 loss team and perhaps still make the playoff. And so I don't know if the pressure increases per se as much as if we schedule. Right? We live in the SEC. I hope we go to a nine game sec schedule at some point in time. You go through that type of gauntlet and you're 10 and 2, 11 and 19 and three, you're gonna be a playoff team. So to me that's how I look at it is, the window is actually greater. And so again, hire the right coach, have a plan. If you lose on a last second field goal in a top 10 matchup, you're gonna fall to number nine, let's say you're in the playoff. So to me that's how we have to look at, uh, the new structure, at least how I'm looking at it moving forward. You know, when you, when you look at this new world of, of college athletics that are writ large, but college football in, in, in particular, the payout to coach Fisher is equal to, or perhaps even a little more than your entire athletic department budget when you ran Ole Miss. Does that register? Yeah, it, it, it does, it, all of it registers right. The, the magnitude and that's why, you know, I talked about this is a comprehensive decision. The magnitude of the finances are just unheard of. Right. In, in college sports, I, I think the Oakland Raiders had a, had a similar number. And so again, back to the pressure to perform the pressure to have consistent leadership, I think, really accelerated here in the last 5 to 7 to 8 years. And so these contracts started coming into play when the market went up. And you know, there's a lot of other people that set the market, not just Texas A and M, there's a lot of other buyouts that if coaches, you know, got let go today would be more than what our buy out is, but those programs are winning, ours didn't work. And so we have to deal with that consequence. And, and that's, I, I think if you just, if we look holistically about college athletics, that's why we're in the state that we're in is the money has gotten so large. I remember when I was at the University of Missouri in 1997 the budget was $13 million for a big 12 budget. Our budget here at Texas A and M is 100 and 75 million. So no one ever comprehended that the money would get this big. No one comprehended that coaches would have 10 year. So we've done it to ourselves. But I think there's a way to say, look, the model is gonna change. We can correct the market coaches that believe in themselves will have different kind of contracts. And so I, I think those are the things that will evolve in this and that people can learn from and we're gonna be able to thrive here at Texas A and M because it's a great place, there's plenty of resources and we can win a lot of games here with the right coach and the right plan, you know, with the money being what it is, are you in favor of paying players, the, the, the labor that produces the money here? Here's what I believe right now in college sports is we have to have an entity, whether it's Congress, whether it's the conferences, the NCAA, we have to re-establish the financial arrangement between the athlete and the institution. That's what we have to redefine. We know we can do more. We know that conversation is out there, right? Whether it's lawsuits, whether it's congressional discussion, there hasn't been a bill introduced yet that has revenue sharing, but there's been some drafts, right? So I think we can do more and I think what we have to do is somebody I hope it's us within college athletics, puts a new model forward cause that's what's coming. So when you get into, when you say, when you just say pay the players to me, it's not that simple. It's how are they classified because they are students, there are employment laws in each state that define what that relationship can look like. So what we have to do is what's the model athlete institution finances? To me, we need to recalibrate that and we should be leaders and be proactive in saying this is what it can look like. Let's go forward with that plan. The problem is whoever puts that plan together, you face a lawsuit, the NCAA, we're in a lawsuit right now in the ninth circuit in California, the House Oliver case, right? Can Congress put that together? They're really the only entity that could, but then you have state by state structure of employment and, and those sort of things. So it's complicated, but the bottom line is we need to redefine the financial model and I believe we can put more resources towards the athlete, what that's called, what that looks like, I think has a lot to work out. Uh But we should get to that point sooner rather than later. If, if you were called to testify, if they said we, we want to hear your input on what you think is a workable feasible plan. What does that look like in your eyes? A successful plan. To me, a successful plan gives uh the ability for athletes to capitalize on their name. Image likeness. It has a financial aid structure from the university that has more enhancements. So we, we can add more value to that. They go to class. There's an academic component, we provide all these resources to them, training, nutrition, sports, psychology, academic support to me. Those are the things that we can do. So in il they do that on their own. They facilitate that. Here's a financial aid package and here's the resources that the university provides. To me, we need to amplify that and really make that more robust because institutions are not gonna have a structure where people are on their campus, but they're not going to school. So you still have the academic component. It's, we really have to define the financial package and then there's a lot of creative uh ideas um that I think are out there that uh probably are saved for when I testify perhaps in Congress. All right, we'll keep an eye out for that. The uh do, do you, if I ever do, do, do you worry that athletes could unionize, sort of like the screen actors guild and, and unionize and collectively bargain for, for, for their rights. There, there's a lot of conversation about sort of the employment model around college athletics and, and part of that would be collective bargaining unionization. There is national labor relations hearings. You know, going on currently right now in the collegiate athletic environment, it really, that really um pertains to private schools right now. And so what you have is you have state by state law that dictates that. So here in Texas, if you're a state of Texas employee, which Texas A and M employees are, you cannot collectively bargain with your employer. So then you go to a state by state. So where Texas is a right to work state, I think 11 of the 13 states in the SEC as an example, are right to work states, meaning collective bargaining is hard, doesn't mean you can't do it, it makes it harder. So there in lies who can be the entity that decides that to me, we need to listen to our athletes, we need to hear what they have to say. We need to ask them. Are there benefits that we're missing out on? What are things that we're not doing that would make your experience better? Is that collective bargaining? I guess in some ways it is because if we implement what they said or what they believe in. So to me, it's, it's nuanced a little bit more than just a straight up collective bargaining conversation or unionization. What we need to do is listen and hear them out and there's been new avenues. I think the SEC has been a leader where we have a student athlete committee and our high profile sports commissioner San, he has done a great job with that. So I think there's a structure but getting up to collective bargaining is where it gets complicated based on all the different state laws and, and how the federal government, you know, views all that. When, um, when you, obviously you've already started the process for, for looking for AAA, new head football coach, who, who are the voices that you're bringing into the discussion? Are you talking to NFL guys alums like who, who are the, the people that are being brought into this discussion at this point? Yeah, Texas A and M the last six coaching searches all the way back to Jackie Sheryl. They've always had a targeted search. Jackie, I think it was Jackie and Bo Simeer right back in the, in the, you know, late seventies, early eighties, right? Uh RC was promoted within Dennis Francioni was targeted, right? Mike Sherman, more or less targeted Kevin Sumlin targeted Jimbo targeted A and M has never tested the market. So we're casting a wide net because we have to get it right first and foremost. So any former player who's reached out to me, I'm calling him back. RC Slocum is here in town. He's a voice. We have two former players here at Texas A and M that are NFL head coaches. We have the maybe the most high profile defensive player in the NFL in Miles Garrett. Those are the kind of voices I I spoke to Dat Wynn the other day, I wanna hear from people that know what winning football looks like here at A and M I wanna know people that are in the coaching community that know what good coaching looks like. So we're, we're listening to everybody and anybody that has either touched A and M football touched college football. We utilize all kinds of resources, whether it's my past stops. Uh Archie Manning is a dear friend, Archie, what are Peyton and Eli, what do they think? Right. David Cutcliffe is one of our associate commissioners in the SEC. He was a big time coach for a long time. He knows what winning football looks like. There's all kinds of resources that uh we utilize in the football world and uh we're gonna tap into all of them. We're not gonna ignore anybody who reaches out that has an idea that knows about A and M football. And I, and I think that will provide us with great value for this search. Will, will another coaches buy out number be a factor in the hiring process? It's part of the analysis for sure. I mean, when you look at a coach that you're trying to talk to, and that's one of the first things that you ask is ok, are they gable based on finances? And so to me, that is a factor and is it a barrier we don't know yet because the process is still unfolding and it. So it all depends on really. Who is that person. Do we think that person is valuable? Is there somebody willing to maybe help with that transition? So all that goes into the equation of how you look at that. So you can't say that it is and you can't say that it isn't right now because the process is still going on. You know, when you and I are hired, get our job, there's certain parameters that are boss. Here's my, here's what I think, you know, a success looks like here's what we would like from you. Just so you, you understand the, the parameters of the job, you know, what success looks like, uh what's acceptable, um, with that in mind, how, how specifically do you define success for this next head coach? Well, let's just look at what just happened, right? I think you have to understand the magnitude of the decision that was made and who the previous coach was, won a national championship, the fact that we invested that money to have him no longer coach. So somebody who walks into this job needs to understand that there's going to be a lot of pressure there is anyway. But based on what just happened, the magnitude is there. So you have to have, first of all, somebody with the wherewithal and the chops that can deal in that environment. And then as long as they have a plan and they have a great staff and they stay consistent. They make the right decisions. They stick to that plan. They, they have an unbelievable recruiting plan and this one thing A and M can do is recruit and we're good at that. And so we need to maintain that and really grow on that. If they have the plan, the resources here at A and M, you match that together, the winning part will take care of itself. The expectation is we should be in the competition for a national championship. That should be the goal we're in the sec, we're in the state of Texas. We have the resources. Let's hire the right coach. The playoff expands. So now you have 12 opportunities for a spot. Let's go make a run. So can we win it every year? No one can. But let's be in the conversation because we have the right plan. Let's be in the conversation because we have the resources, you match those together with the right guy. I don't have to, I don't really have to put a number on it because the number will take care of itself. So to me that's how we're approaching it is, let's get the culture, the plan, the right leader, the right approach, the right recruiting, the right academic, all those things. A and M, let's go. So to me, that's how we're defining expectations. Does that look like? Ok, every, you know, every other year we should be in the playoff every, every few years we should be in the playoff giving ourselves a very finite direct shot at that championship. Part of that answer is what does the format look like? Right. Is it five automatic conference champions and seven at large? Do we stay at six and six? I think we're trending towards five and seven, right? So you have seven at large and you have the five. So in the SEC model, we're going to a single division. So number one and two play for the championship, the other 14, where can, where can you land right in the playoff in that at large spot? So to me, to me, we should be at least in the conversation for the 12 every year, we have that capability and you might miss out on it. You might have an injury, you might have lost on the last second field goal, you know, in the 10th game of the year and that knocked you out because now you're at three losses or whatever. So it all depends on, I think the season that we go along. But again, if we have the right plan and you match that with who we are, I think we should be in the conversation every year may not make it every year, but you're in the conversation. But the season being all, but over by the end of October is simply unacceptable. We, we can't put ourselves in that position. We had 100 and 3000 people at our game against Mississippi State and I'm walking the field before the game and people from the visiting team were saying, why are all these people here? Are you guys playing? Is this game for like an sec championship? We're five and four, they're four and five. So to me, you gotta have games that matter in November. But think about if that game mattered, we'd have 100 and 10,000, we would have had to turn people away. So those are the, those are the things you want to get into is if you're in the hunt in October early November, that this place is gonna just take off and, uh, I can't wait to see it all happen just to kind of wrap up. Uh, what do you say to, you know, just the, what do you say to the legion of, of Aggie's fans who have, watch the team come up short for, for so long? And you are out there wondering, you know, why, why can't we get over the hump? Um, what, what is your message to them right now? The message is when we talk to all of these coaches, we want to understand how they build a culture of winning and how you do that consistently. And to me that's been the missing ingredient around here is an established culture of winning and what that means, what the standards are, what the day to day standards are what the year by year standards are that there has to be a system in place to have a culture of winning. And I think that's what we've been missing out on. At least in the last, you know, four head coaches, we haven't been able to sustain it. We've had spurts, so sustained, culture of winning. That's the part that we're making sure we get right. And so the message is hire the right person execute and it all happens. So we haven't been at, at the highest level consistently. We understand that we totally get that. But with the investment in the last dozen years or so, whether it's Kyle Field, other facilities, other resources. A and M is ready, the university is ready. We're the largest institution in the country with over 77,000 students here on this campus. We have dynamic leadership in Mark. We, we have a system who gets it. So you capitalize on all those things with the right kind of leadership. Then to me, that's where sky is the limit for this program. You know, ut was down for a long time now. They seem to have righted the ship, did their incoming entrance into the SEC have factor into the decision to say we, we need to move on. In my mind, it was e either working or it wasn't. And as I looked out into the future, it was more about do we have the right plan and the right structure to go into 24 and be successful and it could have been 2025 or 26 whatever the year was. That was the analysis. So it doesn't really matter if they're coming in or not. The SEC is the sec, the membership is the membership. It's a gauntlet no matter who's in it. And so I can't wait till we play them. Right. That's gonna be a lot of fun here at C field. The stadium will definitely be shaking for that game, but it was really more about, are we prepared for the next eight weeks? Do we have a transfer plan? A recruiting plan, a staff plan that would set you up for 24? And that's what I was concerned about and that's why part of the reason why we did make a change, how just really quickly tell me the timeline you're working on in terms of the letters of intent, in terms of the transfer portal. Yeah, roughly. How quickly do you need to make this decision? I think you always say you wanna go as fast, but as smart as possible. So that's what we're working on knowing that we did this during the season. You don't want to interfere with a coach's schedule. You don't want to interfere with a big game. They may have, they may be playing in the conference championship game, which is that first week in December, December 4th is a marker force that's the day the transfer portal opens across the country. So I think we need clarity by December 3rd or fourth. So we have a couple of weeks to work with from that standpoint and then you back that up and say who's in playing in a conference championship game, who's finished Thanksgiving weekend? So if you kind of work backwards, those are the markers that we're looking at Thanksgiving weekend. Let's see where we are. Do we need to keep going because somebody's playing? But by December 3rd or fourth, to me, we need clarity on uh who our next coach is. So fans, fans should expect a decision in the next few weeks here. I hope so. That's the plan. That's what we're gearing towards and, and, and that's why another reason why we made the decision when we made it is one, we had some meetings around campus two based on the schedule, the way it lays out. I thought Elijah would hold this team together, be a positive force which he has been, he's been awesome by the way. Coach Robinson has just been terrific. And then that, that allowed us to go out in the market and say, who's out there, who can we talk to who's interested? And we're finding out that A and M is an attractive job and people are willing to engage and, but we don't want to interfere with their situation. We want to do it the right way. But the clock's ticking because things are gonna move fast when the December 4th hits.