$20 million is only the start of it for the Ohio State football program

The Ohio State football program has embraced NIL now that Ross Bjork has taken over as athletic director. It was a big part of their pitch to add players from the transfer portal in the offseason. It was also necessary to help keep some players from finding other programs in the transfer portal.

Players like Quinshon Judkins, Will Howard, and Caleb Downs were all compensated well in order to come to Columbus. It's not the primary reason why they chose Ohio State, but it certainly helped. NIL money also helped bring in some of the top recruits in the 2024 class, such as Jeremiah Smith.

Ross Bjork threw out that $20 million was around the number that was needed for this roster this season. That is a lot of money, and that's for one of the top programs in the country. Worse off programs are going to have a harder time getting recruits. That number is only going to go up though.

The Ohio State football team's roster is only going to get more expensive from here

Rosters are only going to become more expensive now that NIL is legal everywhere. Recruits are going to demand more and so are players on current rosters. Both players already on rosters and recruits alike are going to drive up the prices on programs.

$20 million is going to be the low number for the Ohio State football program soon. In the next few years, the Buckeyes are going to have to pay more money for the privilege of keeping one of the best rosters in college football together. They're going to have to pay at least that amount moving forward.

There will be no roster discounts in college football. Unfortunately, this will mean that the roster gap between the haves and have-nots will be even greater the deeper we get into the NIL era. Ohio State is certainly a have, though. They're going to compete every single season.