Ohio State pivots on renovation plan to Woody Hayes Center

Ohio State AD Gene Smith said the school is “rethinking what the original plans were” for the replacement of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, according to Kaufman & Rabinowitz of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. Smith said this is “one of those things where you've really got to be patient and not just say, 'OK, we need a new building and this is what's going to be in it.'” He added OSU “just started conversations around, 'OK, what if we actually renovate this area, and then add on over here, and put these things over here?'” OSU previously hired HOK and Smith said at the time the school was “talking about a new building that would attach” to Woody Hayes Athletic Center." However, OSU now is “kind of shifting away from that a little bit.” Smith said HOK “challenged us on our programming and things of that nature.” OSU is “starting to study a little bit of a different way of looking at the Woody.” Smith: “Originally, we were going to empty out the Woody, but we’re not going to do that” (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 6/30).

PARTING WAYS?  In Columbus, Joey Kaufman notes a “recently released memorandum” by the IRS is “poised to put the longest-running name, image and likeness collectives supporting Ohio State on different paths.” The IRS’ memo “casts doubt on the tax-exempt status of nonprofit collectives across college sports’ ever-evolving NIL landscape,” a group that includes the Cohesion Foundation and THE Foundation. Both entities associated with OSU “received 501(c)(3) designations from the IRS last year” after they were “established to pay Buckeyes athletes in exchange for working with charitable organizations around Columbus.” Cohesion Foundation Founder & President Gary Marcinick said that the collective is “no longer soliciting donations and expects it to cease operations at the end of this year.” Cohesion has “pitched an ability to claim deductions for contributions on tax filings,” a practice “now in jeopardy as a result of the IRS’ growing scrutiny into the sector” ( COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 6/30 ).