Mike Bohn, athletic director at the University of Southern California, resigned on Friday afternoon, effective immediately, the school announced.
Bohn mentioned “ongoing health challenges” in a statement to the Los Angeles Times and told the newspaper that it was “the right time to step away” from the position. However, the Los Angeles Times reported that the resignation comes a day after the paper’s inquiry into “internal criticism of his management of the athletics department.”
Shortly after Bohn’s resignation announcement, the Los Angeles Times reported that USC earlier this year hired an external law firm to investigate the athletic department’s workplace culture, during which staffers raised concerns about Bohn.
In an open letter to USC alumni and the school, president Carol Folt pointed out that the “USC athletics department has transformed into a national powerhouse” over the last four years.
“In our singular pursuit of excellence, I am committed to ensuring we have the right leadership in place 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 last few years, now is the time for new direction grounded in our values and in expertise needed to fulfill our aspirational vision for Trojan athletics.”
Bohn, 62, who was hired by USC from Cincinnati in November 2019, shepherded significant change during his 3 1/2 years in charge of the Trojans athletic department, most notably hiring Lincoln Riley as the football coach in 2021 and helping orchestrate USC’s move to the Big Ten, a transition that was announced in 2022 and is set to officially take place in 2024.
But there have been ongoing tensions between Bohn and the university’s academic leadership, according to people who have spent time around Bohn during his time at USC and are familiar with the inner workings between the school and the athletics program.
The decision by Bohn to resign is not a completely unexpected one, based on conversations with sources in the industry and familiar with Bohn in recent months, but the timing and nature of the decision and announcement are shocking. The speculation among those sources was that Bohn would likely leave his position before the official transition to the Big Ten next year. It’s worth noting that much of this talk came in the wake of Brandon Sosna — USC’s former chief of staff and Bohn’s right-hand-man at multiple collegiate stops — leaving the Trojans for a front-office role with the Detroit Lions last summer.
Was the timing of Bohn’s resignation a surprise?
Friday’s news stunned many of Bohn’s peers in the industry. Three Big Ten sources told The Athletic that he wasn’t in Rosemont, Ill., earlier this week for the league’s meetings, which was odd, they each independently noted.
The Trojans are fewer than 14 months away from making their move to the Big Ten, which makes the timing of such a decision even more surprising. There is still so much for USC to do to prepare for the move, from logistical challenges to travel issues.
New Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has said repeatedly that the seamless integration of USC and UCLA to the league in the summer of 2024 is his main priority right now. Those schools and the league office have been meeting over the past few months to work on all related issues. — Auerbach
Bohn’s background
Bohn went to USC in late 2019 after almost six years at Cincinnati and nearly nine at Colorado prior to that. He got his first job as athletic director at Idaho in 1998, and spent less than two years as AD at San Diego State before moving to Boulder, where he oversaw the university’s realignment from the Big 12 to the Pac-12 in 2011.
At Cincinnati, Bohn hired Luke Fickell in 2016, who went on to lead Bearcats football to the four-team College Football Playoff in 2021 and helped deliver Cincinnati to the Big 12 this summer, though both of those occurred after Bohn departed for USC. Bohn also hired John Brannen as men’s basketball coach at Cincinnati in April 2019. Two years later, Brannen was fired as a result of a university investigation, which also occurred after Bohn departed 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 worked as a graduate assistant on the Ohio University football coaching staff before beginning his administrative career at Air Force in 1984. — Williams
Required reading
- USC, UCLA will enter Big Ten as full members in 2024
(Photo: Brian Rothmuller / Getty Images)