On the same day Ohio State’s leadership welcomed USC and UCLA into the Big Ten Conference, university athletic director Gene Smith made an interesting reveal.

Smith admitted that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he considered leaving the Big Ten and having Ohio State go independent. And to counteract the millions of dollars that likely would have been lost, he also considered OSU getting its own TV rights deal.

“That was the only time that I talked to the boss about ‘maybe we just go independent,'” Smith said, via Cleveland.com. “Emotions were driving me more than my rational thinking.”