Texas A&M has filled its athletic director vacancy by hiring fellow SEC West AD Ross Bjork from Ole Miss.
The Rebels’ football program experienced big-time success and big-time scandal under Bjork, who came to Oxford from Western Kentucky in 2012.
Ole Miss beat Alabama in back-to-back seasons for the first time in a rivalry that dates back to 1894. One of those dates, with College GameDay and guest picker Katy Perry, became one of the more memorable moments in program history.
The football team went to New Year’s Six bowl games at the end of the 2014 and 2015 seasons, but later vacated 33 wins after the NCAA accused coach Hugh Freeze’s program of committing 15 Level I violations.
The NCAA panel on infractions said the school lacked institutional control and fostered “an unconstrained culture of booster involvement in football recruiting.”
Bjork appeared to make the decision to retain Freeze despite the NCAA infractions and subsequent punishment. He also defended Freeze publicly for years.
Freeze later resigned under pressure after outside investigators found a “concerning pattern of calls” from his university-issued cell phone.
Bjork replaces Scott Woodward, who left for LSU in April.
Bjork was the youngest Power 5 athletic director when Ole Miss hired him in 2012, and he’s now 46 years old.
The baseball team also made the College World Series under Bjork’s watch in 2014.
Bjork oversaw both basketball teams moving to the $94.5 million Pavilion in 2016. He also spearheaded a $65 million renovation of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and a $12.5 renovation of the football team’s facility, more than doubling athletic department revenues in the process.
Now he’ll be overseeing one of the richest athletic departments in the nation, along with football coach Jimbo Fisher and his 10-year, $75 million guaranteed contract.