COLLEGE STATION, Texas — When he walks the concourse at Texas A&M’s football stadium, Athletic Director Ross Bjork sees a field of dreams.
"It really gives you goosebumps, thinking about what’s going to happen," he says.
Bjork envisions more than 100,000 screaming fans making Kyle Field shake as the Aggies host their first ever college football playoff game.
"People have no idea the magnitude of that," he says, "from restaurants to hotels…"
As he trails off, Bjork is reminded of the immediate reality, and unrelenting questions from from students, fans and boosters.
"They’ve invested," Bjork says. "And they’ve been wondering why? Why hasn’t this worked?"
The "this" in question is a major university with access to the most fertile recruiting ground in the country. Playing in the most successful conference in college football, the SEC. Being financially backed by the 12th Man Foundation, which has well over half a billion dollars in commitments to the athletic department.
"The expectation is we should be competing for a national championship," Bjork says. "That should be the goal. Can we win it every year? No one can. But let’s at least be in the conversation."
But with only two 10-win football seasons in the past 20 years, the Aggies haven’t even been the subject of small talk. Which is ultimately what got its head coach Jimbo Fisher fired earlier this month.
"It was my decision, my recommendation," Bjork says. "President [Mark] Walsh agreed. You take that to Chancellor [John] Sharp. He agreed."
That trio did so knowing A&M will owe Fisher $76 million for the remainder of his famously guaranteed contract.
Ask Bjork how the university can afford that record buyout, and he's adamant about not asking boosters to pay off someone they fired.
"I don’t believe it’s really prudent to go to a donor and ask them to buy a coach out of his contract," he says.
Fisher is due an initial payment of $19 million before January 12. Bjork says the Board of Regents authorized tapping the 12th Man Foundation to pay that part of what Fisher's owed: "We found money that was discretionary, that was flexible money, essentially in reserve accounts."
As for the other $57 million due over the next seven years?
"We’ve already found ways to reduce expenses, and we have some new revenues coming our way," Bjork says, noting the home games A&M will host against Texas, LSU and Notre Dame next year. "And then in the fall of ’24, we have a new TV agreement within the SEC. We’re going to be solely on ABC, ESPN.”
But even that’s not enough to cover $57 million, Bjork concedes. The buyout, he says, will force A&M to confront how much it’s been spending.
“We’ve had some excess,” he admits. “Our staff pool for the entire football program was over $13 million. Other programs in the SEC are in the $9 million to $10.5 million range.”
Bjorks says other sports are safe some seeing their budgets cuts, and says job cuts will be confined to the football program.
“Analysts, recruiting positions, operational positions,” Bjork says when asked where he says fat can be trimmed.
He also pointed out how the Aggies’ travel budget was out of sync with other teams.
"Our program under Coach Fisher was leaving [for away games] on Thursday nights," Bjork says. "And so that’s added hotel rooms, that’s added meals. Everybody else leaves on Friday for a road game."
In the end, A&M essentially paid $2.5 million for each one of Coach Fisher’s wins. And for the money still owed to him, you could run four cities in Texas for an entire year -- Melissa, Royse City, Crowley and Decatur.
One aspect of the contract will hamstring the university for years to come: After winning nine games and going to the Orange Bowl in 2021, A&M extended Fisher and kept the original parameters of his deal in place, fully guaranteeing his pay through 2031.
There’s no offset, or stipulation to reduce the amount, if Fisher gets another job. So even if he’s being paid millions of dollars to coach another team, Texas A&M will owe Jimbo Fisher every dime of that $76 million it promised to pay him.
"It was a mistake, as we look back on it," Bjork says. "There’s a lot of other buyouts where if coaches got let go today, would be more than what our buyout is. But those programs are winning. Ours didn’t work."
The athletic director says Texas A&M will not give its next coach a fully guaranteed deal.
“To me as we look forward, somebody has to earn that,” he says. “If they have a plan and really believe in themselves and believe that Texas A&M has all these resources, OK... let’s match that up with an incentive-based contract.”
With the college football playoff expanding to 12 teams next year, Bjork sees an opportunity to structure a deal based on specific benchmarks: “If you host or make the playoff, here’s a number; if you make the semi-finals, here’s a number. And so far, the feedback has been, ‘Absolutely. I know I can win a national championship at A&M.’”
Bjork frequently walks around Kyle Field during home games to get a feel for how the program is performing. He says having the season be all but over by the end of October is unacceptable.
“We can’t put ourselves in that position,” he says. “We had 103,000 people at our game against Mississippi State. I’m walking the field before the game and people from the visiting team were asking me, ‘Why are all these people here?’ To me, you have to have games that matter in November.”
Bjork’s tenure, and the Aggies’ future, hinges on his next hire. And with the transfer portal opening on December 4th, he confirms that a decision is imminent.
“Thanksgiving weekend, let’s see where we are,” he says. “Do we need to keep going because somebody’s playing? But by December 3 or 4, to me, we need clarity on who our next coach is.”
While he opposes asking donors to foot the bill for the past, Bjork is confident they’ll be ready to invest in what’s to come.
“One thing about Aggies: If they believe in a plan, if they believe in a vision and there’s some excitement, they will help the program financially,” he says.