Same field, different expectations: The role of recruitment hosts at Ohio State’s football games

Bridget Lombardo
Thu, 28 May 2026 12:23:51 +0000
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Left to right: Payton Noftz, Ben Ridgeway and Nadia Hajibrahim pose for a photo at Ohio Stadium on Nov. 22, 2025. Photo courtesy of Payton Noftz.

As the tunnel opens and the noise from Ohio Stadium spills onto the field, Payton Noftz looks over at the recruit standing beside her.

Around them, more than 100,000 fans dressed in scarlet and gray begin filling the stadium while Ohio State players warm up ahead of kickoff.

For Noftz, a second-year in sport industry, the moment is part of a much longer day.

While coaches lead recruiting conversations, hosts are often the people recruits turn to with questions they may not ask staff members directly—questions about balancing classes, adjusting to campus life and what it is actually like to be a student at Ohio State.

“A lot of what recruits and their families hear is football,” Noftz said. “滨t is my responsibility to give my experience as a Buckeye.”

Recruitment hosts spend game days and spring practices accompanying recruits and their families through nearly every part of a visit. Depending on the schedule, that can include meals, tours of athletic facilities, campus visits and hours spent answering questions about the student life at Ohio State.

“We’re there to be the student voice,” Ben Ridgeway, a fourth-year in sport industry, said. “滨f [recruits] have questions about what being a student at Ohio State is like, that’s our main job.”

Prior to the recruit’s visit, recruitment hosts are given detailed itineraries, allowing them to prepare for days that often start early in the morning and involve moving recruits between meetings throughout the day.

“Once [recruits] come in the morning, we hit the ground running,” Ridgeway said.

Game days revolve around keeping recruits comfortable while still helping them experience everything Ohio State football has to offer.

“滨 just try to get to know [the recruit],” Noftz said. “The visit can be overwhelming, so making him feel comfortable is key.”

At Ohio State, student-athletes have access to team dining, strength and conditioning programs and athletic trainers. Tutors are available to student-athletes through the Student Athlete Support Services Office and structured schedules are designed to keep them on track, while Name, Image and Likeness opportunities and brand partnerships add another layer of support.?

Although much of the recruitment hosts’ work takes place inside athletic spaces—including locker rooms, the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and Ohio Stadium—the program operates through Undergraduate Admissions rather than the athletic department.

Recruitment hosts move through that environment nearly every visit, even though they do not receive many of the same benefits.

Although the gap is noticeable, it is understood.?

“We’re still only students,” Nadia Hajibrahim, a second-year in sport industry, said. “We’re not putting our bodies on the line, so it only makes sense for us not to receive the same luxuries.”

Ridgeway said the role of recruitment hosts remains important on game days.?

“Our job is technically at the bottom of the totem pole,” said Ridgeway. “But everyone has a job to do, and it starts with us.”

Long before a commitment is announced, the prospective student-athlete’s experience has already been shaped.

When the recruit’s visit ends, the messages from the ones who answer the off-script questions, admit when things are hard and show what it looks like to navigate college life, often linger with the recruit.?

In a system built to impress, the recruitment host’s role is to humanize. Despite operating outside the official structure of athletics, their influence is embedded in nearly every visit—quiet, informal and often overlooked, but rarely insignificant.