Ohio State football GM Mark Pantoni’s major admission shows just how hard it is to get players to become Buckeyes in today’s age

In the new era of recruiting, a lot has changed with how Ohio State gets players to Columbus.

Brandon Little — Ohio State Buckeyes & Cleveland Browns News Writer
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The current landscape of college football is as wild as ever, and the Ohio State Buckeyes saw that firsthand with January’s transfer portal.  

Ohio State had north of 30 players leave the portal, and they brought in around half of that. The Buckeyes had to spend a large amount of cash to make the portal class possible, and that part of college football isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. 

Ohio State general manager says the quiet part out loud about recruiting today 

Buckeyes GM Mark Pantoni recently raised an interesting point in an interview with Adrian Wojnarowski about how bringing in players has to work now.    

“They’re not just coming to Ohio State anymore because of NFL development, great coaching staff, opportunity to win a national championship,” Pantoni said. “There’s a price tag involved now, too.”

Ohio State has no choice but to be competitive with NIL these days, or it would simply be left behind. The top recruits, both out of high school and from the transfer portal, demand a large amount of cash. 

The Buckeyes are paying the elite players big bucks, but they also have to fit Ohio State, too. It goes far past being just a good player on the field. Ohio State wants to bring in players who are good for the locker room and who want to embrace being a Buckeye. 

“Culture is number one,” he said. “That’s how teams win, the culture in that locker room,” Pantoni said. 

There was once a time when Ohio State could recruit the best players because of the Buckeyes’ track record of player development and their winning ways. That’s all still part of the puzzle, but as Pantoni said, a price tag is involved now. 

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