University of Southern California athletic director Mike Bohn resigned Friday afternoon effective immediately, the school said.
Bohn mentioned “ongoing health challenges” in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, telling the newspaper it was “the right time to step down from the position.” However, the Los Angeles Times reported that the resignation comes a day after the paper’s investigation into “internal criticism of his athletics department management.”
Shortly after Bohn announced his retirement, the Los Angeles Times reported that earlier in the year USC hired an outside law firm to investigate the athletic department’s work culture, with employees raising concerns about Bohn.
In an open letter to USC alumni and the school, President Carol Folt noted that “over the past four years, the USC athletics department has evolved into a national powerhouse.”
“In our unique pursuit of excellence, I am committed to ensuring that we have the right leadership to achieve our goals,” she said. “As part of that commitment, and as we prepare to move to the Big Ten, we conducted a thorough review of the athletics department, including its operations, culture and strategy. Having built a strong foundation over the past few years, now is the time for a realignment based on our values and the expertise we need to realize our ambitious vision for Trojan Athletics.”
Bohn, 62, who joined USC from Cincinnati in November 2019, made significant changes during his three-and-a-half years as the Trojans’ athletic director, most notably hiring Lincoln Riley as a football coach in 2021 and serving on the Orchestrating the move to USC the Big Ten, a transition announced in 2022 and scheduled to officially take place in 2024.
But there were ongoing tensions between Bohn and the university’s academic leadership, say people who spent time with Bohn during his time at USC and are familiar with the inner workings between the school and the athletics program.
Bohn’s decision to step down is not entirely unexpected judging from discussions with industry sources and people familiar with Bohn over the past few months, but the timing and nature of the decision and announcement are shocking. Those sources speculated that Bohn would likely leave his position before officially moving to the Big Ten next year. It’s worth noting that many of these talks followed Brandon Sosna — former USC chief of staff and Bohn’s right-hand man at several college stints — who left the Trojans last summer to take a front-office position with the Detroit Lions .
Was the timing of Bohn’s retirement a surprise?
Friday’s news stunned many of Bohn’s industry peers. Three Big Ten sources told The Athletic that he was absent from the league’s meetings in Rosemont, Illinois earlier this week, which is odd, they independently noted.
The Trojans are less than 14 months away from making the Big Ten, making the timing of such a decision even more surprising. From logistical challenges to travel issues, there is still so much work to be done for USC to prepare for the move.
New Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has repeatedly said that seamlessly integrating USC and UCLA into the league in the summer of 2024 is his top priority right now. These schools and the league office have been meeting for the past few months to work on all related issues. — Auerbach
Bohn’s background
Bohn joined USC in late 2019 after previously spending nearly six years in Cincinnati and nearly nine years in Colorado. He got his first job as an athletic director in Idaho in 1998 and spent less than two years as an AD at San Diego State University before moving to Boulder, where he oversaw the university’s realignment from the Big 12 to the Pac-12 in 2011.
At Cincinnati in 2016, Bohn hired Luke Fickell, who led the Bearcats to the four-team college football playoffs in 2021 and helped lead Cincinnati into the Big 12 this summer, although both happened after Bohn left for USC. Bohn also hired John Brannen as his men’s basketball coach in Cincinnati in April 2019. Two years later, Brannen was released following a university investigation, which also took place after Bohn left for USC.
Bohn was born in Illinois but grew up in Boulder. He played football and baseball at the University of Kansas in the early 1980s. He served as an assistant football coach at Ohio University before joining the Air Force in 1984. -Williams
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