Urban Meyer walked onto a Columbus stage to talk about faith and his years at Ohio State. The story he told had little to do with football schemes or recruiting rankings. Meyer recalled at a Life Surge Champions of Faith event in Columbus that an Ohio State attorney once told him he could not hold a Bible study or church service for his players.

His response was blunt. “Well, we’re going to do it.” The two sides eventually settled on calling the sessions “reflection.”

Now, former ESPN reporter Pablo Torre raises concerns about Meyer’s alleged role in propping up Life Surge, an organization that is at the center of an alleged religious scam. Parallely, Meyer’s former QB, Tim Tebow, also had extensive personal involvement with Life Surge.

Torre made the initial revelation about Life Surge last week. However, for another episode in the same series, he had investigative journalist DJ Byrnes from The Rooster on his podcast. In May 2025, Byrnes had reported on the event at which Meyer made his remarks. But that wasn’t the only Life Surge event at Ohio State.

“We do know, thanks to documentation that we obtained separately, that in a typical rental agreement, we have one from 2020 that was booked for a 2022 event and 2023 event, we’re looking at about $45,000,” Pablo Torre said about the Columbus Life Surge events on his October 2 podcast.

Torre then points to the contract’s “item number 4” that stipulates that payment will be made to Ohio State University 10 days after receiving the facilities’ booking invoice. “Which simply means that this was going directly to OSU,” Torre said.

Byrnes then interjected and accused Urban Meyer of facilitating the Life Surge event in Columbus that happened at the Ohio State University.

“You ask who could have possibly greased those tracks for them?” Byrnes told Pablo Torre. “I would suspect Urban Meyer, in my opinion, would be at the top of that list because he still maintains clout within the university circles.”

Life Surge’s May 2025 event at the Schottenstein Center at OSU was built around a familiar group of names for anyone in Columbus. The event featured Meyer, Kirk Herbstreit, Jeremiah Smith, Caleb Downs, and Tavien St. Clair, along with Tim Tebow and several Christian speakers.

The religious organization advertised the Columbus stop as a full-day event centered on faith, personal growth, and financial education. Interestingly, in 2018, Meyer told reporters that faith was “a big part of this program,” but stressed that players were not required to take part.

He also mentioned fundraisers for Athletes in Action and said Ohio State wanted its players to have access to whatever support they needed. Life Surge has now placed that background next to its own controversial business model.

According to Torre, customers were offered the chance to win a photo opportunity with Meyer and Ohio State players. Byrnes previously reported that 25 customers were promoted as potential winners of the photo opportunity.

Moreover, Torre called the athletes, including Caleb Downs and Jeremiah Smith, part of the “lure” employed by Life Surge. Most importantly, he called out the faith-based ecosystem present within Ohio State’s football program and how it can be misused by entities like Life Surge.

Pablo Torre flags concern about Ohio State’s faith- based ecosystem

Joe Johnson founded Life Surge, which presents itself as a faith-based financial conference. The events promise to teach Christians how to build wealth while using it to serve “God’s kingdom.”

However, Torre and Mother Jones reporter Kiera Butler’s investigation found that the $30 tickets were only the starting point for Life Surge events. Once attendees arrived, they were pitched on SurgeU mentorship programs focused on stock trading and real estate, with prices ranging from $10,000 to $50,000.

The organization has also been accused of pushing many Christians toward taking on large amounts of debt to pay for the programs. Investigators reported that attendees were encouraged to open new credit cards, borrow against their homes, or use retirement savings to cover the cost.

“The religiosity of Ohio State’s locker room is even after Urban Meyer, right?” Pablo Torre said to Byrnes. “I mean what you’re saying and what you’ve reported here is that this focus on God, at the expense of ostensibly the Constitution, has transcended Urban and entered the fifth-ranked program as we sit here today.”

Under Ryan Day, that part of the program has become more player-driven. In the fall of 2024, several Ohio State players took their faith to campus, including TreVeyon Henderson, Gee Scott Jr., and Emeka Egbuka.

The three joined other players on a stage in a campus courtyard and spoke about the Gospel in front of thousands of students. The event ended with Ohio State football players baptizing fellow students in large tubs of water.

One student captured the atmosphere by calling it “a locker room, but for Jesus.” For Torre, the whole faith-based environment is an easy way in for Life Surge to organize its events and “lure” people into their alleged scam.