SEC West musical chairs continues as Texas A&M hires Ross Bjork as its new AD
Texas A&M went to Ole Miss to replace the athletic director who went to LSU.
A&M announced late Thursday night that Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork would take the same position with the Aggies. Bjork replaces Scott Woodward, who replaced Joe Alleva after Alleva stepped down at LSU.
"I am thrilled to welcome Ross Bjork to Aggieland," Texas A&M president Michael K. Young said in a statement. "His outstanding reputation as a leader will be vital to the continued trajectory of our athletics program. His appreciation for higher education is evident in achieving the highest GPA and graduation rates on record during his tenure at Ole Miss. We look forward to formally introducing Ross in the coming days and also to welcoming his wife, Sonya, and sons, Paxton and Payton, to one of the most hospitable communities on earth.”
Bjork has been the athletic director at Ole Miss since arriving from Western Kentucky in 2012. He was in charge as Ole Miss’ football program was investigated for improperly paying players and coach Hugh Freeze had to resign after dialing an escort service from a school-owned phone.
The NCAA said in February that Ole Miss must vacate 33 wins over Freeze’s tenure because of the violations under Freeze and Houston Nutt, the coach who preceded him. The NCAA found that assistants under Nutt engaged in ACT fraud while Freeze was in charge for most of the violations. Ole Miss was given the “lack of institutional control” penalty from the NCAA and got a two-year bowl ban.
Freeze, most notably, had gone on an offensive when the NCAA’s investigation began and had tried to publicly contend that most of the violations happened while Nutt was the team’s coach.
The most explosive part of the Ole Miss NCAA saga came during the 2016 NFL draft when text messages between Tunsil and an Ole Miss staffer were revealed that showed Tunsil saying he needed money for rent and utilities.
Woodward left for LSU in April
Woodward, an LSU alum, was immediately targeted by the Tigers after Alleva resigned in April. It didn’t take long from Alleva’s official resignation for Woodward to replace him and Texas A&M to install former football coach R.C. Slocum as the team’s athletic director.
Now that A&M’s search is over after about a month, it’s Ole Miss’ turn to find a new athletic director. Though our big bet is that the Rebels have to go outside of the SEC West to find a new AD. John Cohen was promoted to be Mississippi State’s AD after a tenure as the team’s baseball coach and no AD would leave State to go to Ole Miss. And Hunter Yurachek hasn’t been at Arkansas that long. Throw out Greg Byrne at Alabama and Allen Greene at Auburn and there’s no viable SEC West candidate to come to Oxford.
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
More from Yahoo Sports:
