After a decade of endless soap operas, scandals, and footballing mediocrity, USC fans could finally spend a few years enjoying the fruits of what appeared to be a functional sports department. Under AD Mike Bohn — who was hired from Cincinnati in 2019 and snapped a long line of ex-jocks posing as track directors — USC Lincoln Riley lured out of Oklahoma, announced his bold leap into the Big Ten and enjoyed a resurgence in both women’s – as well as in men’s basketball. USC athletics finally felt…steady.
It turned out to be a mirage.
Bohn is resigning, University President Carol Folt announced on Friday that she had accepted his resignation “effective today”. Of course, if someone resigns of their own accord, they do so immediately and announce it on a Friday afternoon.
Folt noted that in preparation for moving to the Big Ten, USC “conducted a thorough review of the athletics department, including its operations, culture and strategy.” This is perfectly normal when someone’s job is secure.
Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Times reported later Friday that USC hired an outside law firm specializing in “sexual harassment and misconduct” allegations to investigate the athletic department’s work culture, with employees raising concerns about Bohn. More details will likely be announced in the coming days and weeks.
It’s time to reset the “days since the USC athletics department embarrassment” count to zero.
Just over a year before Big Ten membership becomes official, USC is now without an athletic director. Riley, who is bringing back Heisman-winning quarterback Caleb Williams and will field a team with legitimate college football playoff ambitions this fall, is now without a boss. And the search for executives, which Folt now has to tackle, usually takes months.
Mike Bohn (right) and USC hired Lincoln Riley (second from right) as their head football coach in 2022. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
All of this is far from ideal.
And Folt is now under intense pressure to hire a rock-solid new athletics director — something USC hasn’t been able to do in at least 30 years — as the school is experiencing the most significant athletics moment in its modern history.
There is no understanding of the scale of the school’s Big Ten move, which involves a million logistical challenges and extreme competitive risks. Many schools have changed their conferences over the years, but no Power 5 program with national championship aspirations has made it and moved to a league based 2,000 miles east. Hiring the right executive to oversee these efforts will be crucial.
There is a long list of programs that have hunted for gold over the past decade and incurred losses. I’m looking at you Nebraska. Or West Virginia. Or Colorado. Or Rutgers. The good news for USC is that its games will no longer be relegated to the Pac-12 Network or played in the middle of the night on the East Coast. The bad news is that when the Trojans lose face, many millions more viewers will be watching.
More than ever, success not only in football, but in all its sports, requires almost perfect administrative coordination of all facets of the university community. Even before Friday’s news, there were signs that Bohn hadn’t taken the strictest lead.
GO DEEPER
USC AD Mike Bohn resigns
In fact, Bohn’s first sign of trouble may have come last summer when his longtime right-hand man, Brandon Sosna, joined the Detroit Lions. A May 2022 article on The Athletic detailed how Sosna was instrumental in bringing Riley in and aiding his transition. Sosna was also instrumental in USC’s early initiatives around NIL – all of which have since been scrapped.
Bohn seemed at times to have trouble adjusting to the new landscape of college sports. While he publicly advocated preventing athletes from earning an income, behind the scenes he was reportedly at odds with his constituents. At least four different collectives have emerged since August 2022, when a Los Angeles Times article said Bohn had “refused to acknowledge the existence of a group called Student Body Right.” This one and others have already come and gone. The latest project, House of Victory, was announced just last month.
Now the two people in the athletic department who were most involved in Riley’s hiring and move to the Big Ten are gone. Someone new needs to come in fast and settle in. Your mission will be to lead USC into a new era of athletics glory.
And best of all without creating yet another round of embarrassing headlines.
(Top Photo: Keith Birmingham / MediaNews Group / Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)