On Thursday at Downtown Columbus’ Nationwide Arena, the NCAA was in town to build excitement for the 2027 Women’s Final Four.
Local business partners, influencers, media and basketball greats like Katie Smith sat and watched as the hosting committee, a partnership of the Columbus Sports Commission and Ohio State, unveiled the 2027 tournament logo.
After the locally-inspired hype video ended, and surrounded by little groups filling the arena annex with small talk, Land-Grant Holy Land spoke one-on-one
with Ohio State Athletics Director Ross Bjork.
On the agenda? Ohio State women’s basketball and women’s athletics at-large.
At Columbus, Ohio mayor Andrew Ginther’s 2025 State of the City address, the elected official shared aspirations of making Columbus the “National Capital of Women’s Sports.“ That is a lofty, and hard to track, goal. After all, there is only one traditional professional team, Major League Volleyball’s Columbus Fury, that calls the city home.
In reality, Ohio State is the largest organization to pay women’s athletes in the city. Since July 1, 2025, Buckeye athletes in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and women’s volleyball all started to receive payment directly from the university. Before then, players made money through name, image and likeness deals known as NILs.
For Ohio State women’s basketball, the move to revenue sharing had a direct impact on the 2025-26 roster. In past seasons, the Buckeyes loaded up with nearly 15 players, although a handful each season sat on the bench or received a redshirt.
This season, Ohio State has 11, and nine play consistently. Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff discussed it at Big Ten Media Day before the start of the season.
“11 is probably one short, and I’d love to have one more,” McGuff said. “It’s a little bit more difficult to get the right 12 or 13 in the rev share era and the NIL, but it’s also hard to have 14 or 15 who are trying to play as well. So you know, it’s probably 12.”
The news of direct player payments came in the fall of 2024, which gave schools time to prepare how revenue is allocated and to make the proper updates to scholarship limits, roster limits and more. Now, seven months since the start of payments, what has the university’s athletic department learned?
“Most programs in the country are giving some revenue share allocation to women’s basketball,” Bjork told Land-Grant Holy Land. “We want to be as aggressive as we can with that revenue share allocation. I think we’re in the game, you know, near the top, within the Big Ten and around the country, and so continue to invest, because if that’s what’s attracting the better players in this environment, you got to have the right culture, but you also need resources, because that’s reality.”
That also means that there needs to be revenue to support it. Ohio State’s athletic department is not funded from Ohio tax dollars or student tuition. Instead, media deals, ticket sales, donations, merchandise and more create the department’s operating budget to support around 1,000 athletes. According to the athletic department, 2025 was a record-breaking success.
Ohio State set a new benchmark with $336,077,887 in revenue for the fiscal year, a department record that surpassed the previous best by over $56 billion dollars. According to CNBC, Ohio State’s athletic department is worth $1.35 billion dollars, second only to the University of Texas for the most valuable department in the NCAA.
When numbers like those go public, it is hard to take recent updates to the Ohio State women’s basketball season ticket process. Historically, Buckeye fans paid for either a courtside seat or in the lower bowl’s 100 or 200 levels. For the 24-25 season, tickets cost $265 for an entire season courtside and $210 for anywhere else and students, seniors or faculty and staff have a discounted price.
That changes for the 26-27 season. Courtside and the four middle sections (two on each baseline near center court) increased $100 and $25, respectively. The remaining sections of the 100 and 200 levels remain at $210. That extra cost is not an increase in ticket price but a mandatory per-seat contribution. It is an involuntary donation. In a time of revenue sharing and NIL, it is the price of having a competitive basketball team.
“We can pay the athletes directly through revenue sharing. Well, that’s a line item in the budget,” Bjork said. “So we need to have revenue to just offset new expenses. look for women’s basketball in particular. We want to make sure that we can travel effectively. We played at Iowa on Sunday. We’re in a snowstorm. They were able to get back here Sunday night because we had a charter flight for them, right? And so just having that kind of first class experience for the athlete.”
Experiences stretch to the fans too, Bjork continued. Ohio State has made changes to the women’s basketball arena environment this season with a regular in-arena emcee and promotional giveaways like a reoccuring t-shirt toss and items parachuted down from the top of the Schottenstein Center. These are all things that men’s basketball fans are used to, but relatively new to a women’s basketball game.
Ticket increases alone always cause an initial shock, especially when fans do not always see how the money is invested. An added frustration with the change goes deeper than a higher cost structure. In the past, fans’ season ticket representatives emailed them to select their seats when time came to prepare for the next campaign. Now, the more you donate, the higher priority you get in selecting your seat.
While there is a point structure for season ticket holder tenure, the amount of money donated above and beyond the cost of tickets grants higher priority. So, the more you give, the better your seats or at least the more freedom a fan gets to select.
This change has caused some fans to give up their season tickets altogether at a time when Ohio State women’s basketball attendance is on the decline. The Buckeyes’ Big Ten average attendance this season sits at 6,374 per game, down 1,315 from last season.
Overall, when seven nonconference games against midmajor opponents get included, Ohio State welcomes 5,620 fans per game, 1,100 less than last season. Both figures are the lowest since the 21-22 season, when fans still took precautions for COVID-19.
Even though attendance numbers are down, the return of the Final Four next season brings an element of excitement to women’s basketball around Columbus. Since the logo unveiling, the 2026 NCAA Championship trophy occupied the Schottenstein Center for fans to see and as the games get closer, Ohio State’s campus will host events for fans and VIPs alike.
Schedule-wise, the Buckeyes already have a game on the 26-27 slate that is guaranteed to fill arena seats when the UConn Huskies come to town for the second of a home-and-home series.
In 2018, when Columbus last hosted the Final Four, both semifinal games went to overtime and Notre Dame Fighting Irish guard Arike Ogunbowale hit a buzzer beating three-point shot to give Notre Dame the championship, the second buzzer beater for the now WNBA star in consecutive games.
Ohio State has not been in the Final Four since 1993. In the last four seasons, the Buckeyes made it to the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and then two consecutive Second Round exits, despite Ohio State’s NIL work to entice players like point guard Jaloni Cambridge. Will revenue sharing and the Buckeyes’ place near the top of the mountain of cash in the NCAA propel the team into the title conversation?
“I think it just comes down to consistency, right?” Bjork said. “We can have great regular seasons. And then so is that depth, right? Do you have to tweak a few things? Do you need more size as you get into postseason? You know, those are all the things that I think Coach McGuff continues to assess.”
The university athletic department as a whole has consistency in women’s sports. Over half of the school’s 36 sports are women’s teams and it includes recent hockey national championships, a four-time pistol shooting team and high quality sports venues, plus a rumored hockey arena.
When it comes to being the “National Capital of Women’s Sports,” it does not only include Ohio State, but that is where it starts.
“When we talk to a young lady about all the opportunities you have to connect with companies, because they’re going to be here when we host a big event like the women’s basketball Final Four, or in December of 2027 a women’s volleyball Final Four, it just speaks to this is the stage that you want to be on as a high profile athlete, A women’s sports athlete,” Bjork said.
“When you couple the mayor’s initiative with the robust community, with Ohio State the ability to host these events, it’s just really a perfect combination of what these athletes typically look for. And education, by the way.”
