By: Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland Plain Dealer) -

Columbus – With 36 sports and a $128 million budget for the next fiscal year, Ohio State has the largest, and one of the healthiest, athletic departments in the country. One of a handful of self-sustaining college athletic departments, Ohio State will turn a slight profit this year, just over $20,000, after losing money a year ago.

At the moment, Athletic Director Gene Smith said the department is in the midst of raising $5 million for an indoor golf practice center and $3.5 million for outdoor tennis courts, along with jumpstarting stalled fundraising for new basketball practice facilities. After that, the school will begin to raise money for a new, smaller arena to replace St. John Arena in the next six to eight years. After an economic downturn, Smith said a second year of reduced expenditures and a tide that is turning more favorable in the economics of college sports has the department back on track.

So why would Ohio State, in recent years the leader of the Big Ten pack in football, basketball and money, want the Big Ten to expand, especially considering the conference’s equal revenue sharing, where the Buckeyes obviously contribute more than 1/11th of television and bowl money, but only get back the same amount as schools such as Minnesota and Northwestern?

Smith, previously the AD at Eastern Michigan, Iowa State and Arizona State, is quick to point out the academic benefits of including more Association of American University members in the conference, saying it would expand sharing of research and academic resources.

Also the chairman of the NCAA Tournament basketball committee, which just saw its men’s tournament grow from 65 to 68 teams, Smith is at the forefront of growth of college sports. But the basketball expansion was a must, a part of a new television agreement. Big Ten expansion is a choice.

“With Big Ten expansion, there’s no contractual obligation to do that, but I think it’s a recognition of the opportunities that we have,” Smith said. “I am truly unsure about where this is going to end up. And we may do nothing. I know people don’t believe that, but at the end of the day, we might not. If it reaches our academic objectives and our financial objectives and we don’t in any form or fashion make it more difficult for our student athletes to have a great experience in competition, then we’ll probably do something. But I can’t project that.”

But if Ohio State didn’t want the Big Ten to grow, could expansion be quashed? Smith sat down with The Plain Dealer recently for an interview. Here are excerpts…….

READ THE REST OF THIS GREAT ARTICLE DIRECTLY FROM THE SOURCE PAGE AT THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER BY CLICKING HERE.

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