Ohio State Athletics Director Gene Smith told media outlets earlier this week that his department is heading toward the red – largely because of decreased men’s basketball revenues. 

To help compensate, Smith is reportedly set to present a plan to the board of trustees later this week that would raise football and basketball ticket prices by $1.  It might not seem like much, but do remember that Ohio Stadium routinely sells out with crowds of over 100,000. 

The department operates with one of the highest budgets in the Big Ten, outdoing the folks over at Bierman by about $40 million this year. 

The man overseeing that budget is also one of the highest-paid AD’s in the conference, bringing in a base salary of $648,000. 

To see how Smith’s and other Big Ten AD’s salaries corresponds with their programs’ athletics success, make sure to pick up a copy of Thursday’s Daily…or you could help out your favorite news source by continually clicking refresh on our home page until the story is posted (ETA 6 hours). 

For those that can’t wait for a taste, here’s a morsel of my findings (*SPOILER ALERT*): 

The athletics director whose department consistently ranks in the top ten in the Director’s Cup makes $220,000 less than an AD that leads a department that has an average finish of 40th in the rankings.