Ohio State, football GM Mark Pantoni reach new deal: reports

Ohio State and its football general manager have come to a new deal heading into the 2025 season and coming off the Buckeyes' national championship run.

Mark Pantoni has served as the general manager of the Ohio State football program. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Ohio State has endured its share of staff overhaul coming off its national championship, but the football program just secured one of its most important personnel members into the future.

Ohio State and general manager of player personnel Mark Pantoni have agreed to a new contract lasting over the next several years, according to multiple reports.

On3 Sports first reported the development.

The deal will make Pantoni one of the highest-paid general managers in college football this year.

Pantoni has emerged as one of the most respected front office figures in college football over his 15-year career given his work in recruiting and roster management.

In that time, Pantoni has helped engineer four national championship teams, two at Florida, and two at Ohio State, most recently during the Buckeyes’ national title run in 2024.

Pantoni began his career with Florida, his alma mater, as a member of the Gators’ football operations team, working in a recruiting capacity in addition to football administration.

He joined the Buckeyes alongside then-head coach Urban Meyer in 2011, who he previously worked for at Florida, when he assumed the role of director of player personnel.

Those duties include overseeing all major aspects of the football program’s recruiting efforts, film evaluation, scouting, on-campus visits, travel, and general roster management.

Ohio State has routinely signed football recruiting classes that ranked at or near the top of the national rankings in that time, including 12 top-five classes, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite.

His efforts recruiting players for the Buckeyes from the transfer portal has also proved successful, as the team signed quarterback Will Howard, tailback Quinshon Judkins, and safety Caleb Downs, all players integral to OSU’s title run, during a productive 2024 portal effort.

(On3)

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