After a decade of endless soap operas, scandals and football mediocrity, USC fans finally got to spend a couple of years enjoying the fruits of an ostensibly functional athletic department. Under AD Mike Bohn — hired in 2019 from Cincinnati, snapping a long succession of ex-jocks masquerading as athletics directors — USC lured Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma, announced its audacious jump to the Big Ten and enjoyed a resurgence in both women’s and men’s basketball. USC athletics finally felt … stable.
Turns out it was a mirage.
Bohn is out, with university president Carol Folt announcing Friday she has accepted his resignation “effective today.” Of course, when someone leaves a job of their own volition, they do so immediately and announce it on a Friday afternoon.
Folt mentioned that in preparation for moving to the Big Ten, USC “conducted a thorough review of the athletics department, including its operations, culture, and strategy.” That’s a totally normal thing to do when somebody’s job is safe.
Alas, the Los Angeles Times reported later Friday that USC had hired an external law firm specializing in “sexual harassment and misconduct” allegations to investigate the athletic department’s workplace culture, during which staffers raised concerns about Bohn….
