Within the 18 months since she took over as USC’s athletic director, Jennifer Cohen’s job has grown extra sophisticated by the week. When she was first employed in August 2023, Cohen inherited an unstable division on its technique to a brand new convention with an underachieving soccer program.
Within the meantime, the complete panorama of faculty sports activities modified. Then modified once more.
Extra change continues to be on the horizon, with a ultimate ruling on a $2.78 billion antitrust settlement agreed to by the NCAA and 5 energy convention set for April and USC readying to distribute $20.5 million in income to its athletes this fall if the Home vs. NCAA settlement is authorised.
“We’re entering into a different era,” Cohen stated on Thursday, “and for us, we’re motivated to win that era at USC.”
Cohen understands that begins, before everything, with successful on the soccer area, the place USC has fallen quick the final two seasons below coach Lincoln Riley. The Trojans completed the 2024 season at 7-6, Riley’s worst file but as a head coach.
These outcomes, Cohen instructed The Occasions, “certainly didn’t meet the expectations that we have.”
However since, Cohen has turned her focus to giving Riley “every resource possible to get to the next level”, beginning with a normal supervisor and a revamped personnel division. And within the fall, when income sharing turns into a actuality, Cohen made clear that “championship-level football” will probably be a guideline in figuring out how cash is split at USC.
The Occasions spoke to Cohen about that and far more this week. The next interview has been edited for size and readability.
What was your message to Lincoln Riley after this season on condition that it didn’t meet your expectations?
Cohen: Right here’s the factor. This trade is altering a lot, so quickly, that we’re all the time in conversations and evaluating every little thing that we’d like. What assets do we’d like? What items do we have to put in place to achieve success? So it’s not an end-of-the-year dialog. It’s ongoing. I’m happy with the progress we’ve made because the finish of the season and within the offseason. I feel he’s achieved a wonderful job of placing collectively an important teaching employees. We labored actually onerous to maintain quite a few gifted coaches and to retain them. Consistency is so necessary, so I’m actually happy with that. I believed we made some actually good further hires that complement the employees, each from an expertise and a growth standpoint, in addition to a recruiting standpoint. [Football general manager Chad Bowden’s] rent clearly is big for us and the infrastructure that he’s constructing. So I really feel like there’s quite a lot of issues we have been speaking about effectively earlier than the top of the season, and we’ll hold speaking about and hold evolving and continue to grow and altering. However there’s been some actually optimistic motion taken to create what seems to be like some actually thrilling second as we enter into the spring and into subsequent season.
What function would you say Riley has performed in that progress you’re referring to?
Cohen: It’s a partnership. That is his program to run. However I have a look at all these relationships as partnerships, with each coach we’ve right here. Since I obtained right here, we’ve been having ongoing dialogue about what he thinks he wants, and what I feel I want and doing that collectively as we have a look at how a lot has modified, you understand? We’ve each been a part of championship-level CFP groups earlier than, however the setting has modified.
So he performed an energetic function within the search course of for a GM, and we had conversations a few GM earlier than final season. Mockingly, I feel we ended up in completely the perfect spot by being affected person within the course of. We introduced in quite a lot of different individuals. He has a giant community and so do I. Not simply in faculty however within the NFL. We obtained quite a lot of recommendation and experience and knowledge that we collected alongside the best way. I feel [we] helped one another keep affected person within the course of.
We have been in search of a unicorn. As a result of these faculty GM jobs are so distinctive, you understand? You possibly can’t simply say you’re the NFL now — you’re not. We’re nonetheless a school soccer program with a bunch of various complexities that don’t exist within the NFL, however there’s finest practices within the NFL that we would have liked to implement. So discovering Chad and his pleasure about Chad and his perception in him, Chad’s perception in Lincoln, was an actual win-win for USC. I’m enthusiastic about it.
What would you say your confidence stage is in Riley as USC’s coach proper now?
Cohen: Lincoln has the expertise, proper? He’s constructed and led championship groups earlier than. And so my focus with him is simply investing and giving him — and never simply him, however his whole teaching employees, his help employees that he has round him each useful resource attainable to get to the subsequent stage.
After we talked after the 2023 season — as USC completed 8-5 — you referred to as it a “disappointing” season, and have been upfront simply now that this yr’s 7-6 end “doesn’t meet expectations.” What do you’ll want to see this yr to point out that this system is on an upward trajectory?
Cohen: What I can say is that USC is a particular place and that we’re aligned and we’re resourced in a technique to compete in what’s a really evolving and altering panorama. And that we as a division, him as a coach, me as an AD, us as a college — we’ve to maintain adapting to that. I really feel like we simply need to go execute. We simply need to go execute. And I really feel actually assured within the assets that we’ve put into this program. We all know we will do it right here as a result of it’s been achieved right here earlier than. I’m simply prepared for spring ball to begin to see a few of these new faces we’ve when it comes to subsequent season.
You’ve clearly invested quite a lot of assets into soccer since you bought right here. You rebuilt a brand new defensive employees. Now you revamped the soccer personnel division. There’s not loads left to rebuild after that. Is it honest to say there aren’t any extra excuses left when it comes to seeing actual progress this subsequent season?
Cohen: I simply suppose we’ve excessive expectations. He has them and I’ve them. Yeah, we’re simply working collectively to get there.
I do know you thought-about each NFL and faculty candidates for the GM job. What made you lean extra towards the recruiting/collegiate finish of that spectrum with Chad Bowden? What qualities have been most necessary to you in in search of that individual?
Cohen: Truly, I feel he’s the entire image in that. To your level, once you’re taking a look at individuals who solely had NFL backgrounds, it wasn’t that they didn’t perceive recruiting or have these relationships, it was that additionally they didn’t have the expertise of understanding learn how to navigate in a college setting or in NIL or in coping with donors and all these different facets which might be a part of ecosystem of a school athletic division and a school soccer program. We have been open to that. We figured regardless of who we employed, we have been going to need to complement expertise and experience round them regardless. That’s why we’re constructing out a complete infrastructure round Chad.
That being stated, Chad’s strengths aren’t simply in recruiting and relationships. He additionally has a robust background in eval. He has a robust background in using information analytics in making knowledgeable selections. He has a robust background in managing a roster and managing a price range to a roster. He has different individuals he’s bringing in and are nonetheless going to herald. We nonetheless must construct out some extra of our analytics facet that can complement him. However he actually blew us away by the steadiness and the breadth and depth of his expertise. And likewise simply type of understanding behind the scenes what he was capable of do at Notre Dame with what assets he had actually impressed us as effectively.
We’re lower than two months out from the ultimate resolution on the Home settlement, which might result in income sharing in faculty sports activities. What are your emotions on the place that stands? And what are your greatest considerations as we strategy that date?
Cohen: I feel this can be a distinctive alternative. We’re coming into into a special period and for us, we’re motivated to win that period at USC. We expect that we will. There’s been a lot work achieved over the past a number of months. I really feel like our employees has achieved an important job getting ready a highway map for us for the longer term, and it’s additionally been a very diligent, thorough, collaborative course of — not simply with my group and the athletic division and employees and coaches, but in addition with management on campus as a result of that’s actually necessary too.
I’m not ready to share specifics proper now, however I’m ready to share how we’re enthusiastic about our selections and what we’re shaping our selections round. We’ve had these guiding rules that assist form our plan and one is championship-level soccer. We’ve talked about that. We’re by no means going to draw back from that at USC. And it’s additionally the engine that funds the remainder of the athletic packages. It’s this system that brings probably the most visibility and recognition to our college, in order that’s a precedence within the plans we’re growing.
As such although, it’s not one or the opposite. Broad-based success can be extraordinarily necessary to us. We’re so happy with our packages. Our Olympics sports activities, we’ve so many ranked groups proper now. We’ve constantly completed within the high 10 within the Director’s Cup, extra Olympians than anyone else and an Olympics coming right here in 2028. So we’re actually dedicated to persevering with our broad-based success and Olympic success with the plan we’re growing.
Then you definately take these issues and also you say, ‘OK, how can we be financially responsible,’ proper?’ That’s necessary. How we use our assets is necessary. We have to discover new revenues to come back into our division to assist offset these added bills. Whereas we’re actually excited to speculate extra in college students, we additionally acknowledge internally that we’ve to do enterprise otherwise. Internally, we’ve to make completely different selections. Clearly how we’re investing and in some methods redirecting funding into soccer is a good instance of that. However we’re gonna have to try this throughout our division. And hopefully as we try this, we’ll get followers and donors to additionally acknowledge that we’d like them, too. We’re all gonna need to adapt to this. So if and when — and I anticipate it’ll — the settlement will get authorised in April, we’ll stay up for sharing far more specifics then.
With out sharing specifics, is it honest to say that the funding USC intends to make in soccer, when it comes to proportion of income shared, can be consistent with different main soccer packages throughout the nation?
Cohen: Yeah, I imply, to have a championship stage program, you must make investments like different championship-level packages. So I feel that’s honest.
Assuming the settlement is authorised, the strategy to NIL, I think about, will look loads completely different. What function do you envision Home of Victory enjoying going ahead?
Cohen: The way forward for NIL, to me, continues to be somewhat little bit of a thriller truthfully. I feel there are quite a lot of unanswered questions and work to be achieved when it comes to NIL enforcement and the clearinghouse. This can be a crucial problem, and these are conversations we’re having within the Huge Ten, on the convention stage, so it’s too early to inform as to what function HoV could also be enjoying long run in our future. What we do know is that maximizing NIL alternatives for all scholar athletes is a large precedence for us, and we’ve plans in place, differing plans in place, to make sure that. What we additionally know is we’re within the strongest place for NIL of any faculty within the nation so far as I’m involved. We’re in the perfect marketplace for sports activities, and that basically differentiates us from quite a lot of our opponents and that’s going to serve our athletes going ahead.
Yahoo! lately reported that the facility conferences are planning to kind a bunch, impartial of the NCAA, to implement NIL guidelines, approve NIL offers and police the revenue-sharing cap. Do you imagine that it’s practical to suppose that might work?
Cohen: I imagine that we’ve to imagine that. You understand, I feel if we need to get to a system that has some kind of constraints — like we’re in faculty, and we’re having a tough time having checks and balances. Within the professionals, they don’t have those self same challenges, proper? So I imagine we’ve to imagine we will reimagine learn how to function on this new period in a method that’s as equitable as attainable.
Issues have been raised by some athletes concerning the fallout from new roster limits. Is it inevitable that some athletes who’re walk-ons or on partial scholarships will lose their spots at USC due to this new actuality we’re coming into into?
Cohen: I feel these are sophisticated occasions as an trade, so once you’re creating completely different insurance policies and adjustments, there’s all the time the possibility there’s going to be some kind of litigation round it. I feel it’s too early to inform if that’s the place it’s going to come back from, however I feel it’s simply a part of the setting that we’ve already been working in for an extended time frame.
What challenges have arisen and what have you ever discovered so removed from this primary season within the Huge Ten?
Cohen: It’s somewhat early to guage it holistically. We do have quite a few mechanisms to try this, each clearly with conversations with our coaches, but in addition with the best way that we talk and get suggestions from our scholar athletes. I might say general the primary six months have been actually optimistic. We gained our first-ever Huge Ten championship in ladies’s soccer, and that was one of many three sports activities within the fall touring for a full Huge Ten schedule. The publicity has been nice for our college students and our groups. I feel it’s actually necessary we’re on this convention for having a seat on the desk about all of the issues we’ve been discussing — like, the place is that this factor going and the way is that this going to form up? Effectively we’ve a voice in that as a result of we’re within the Huge Ten. Subsequent week, I’ll go and attend a gathering with not simply Huge Ten ADs however SEC ADs. And USC belongs in these conversations, and I feel that’s one other optimistic from the transition we’ve had. I’ve additionally, I feel it’s been enjoyable to go play in several venues and have completely different followers right here. Although, I’m somewhat bit irritated what number of guests we’re having in Galen for the lads’s [basketball] video games. However I really type of like that. The stakes are larger on this convention, and it units a special tone. It challenges us as a division, and I feel it challenges our followers too to learn to compete with a few of that.
So far as challenges go, definitely from a journey standpoint, it looks as if the 2 basketball packages have been probably the most impacted, simply with the best way it schedules. On the finish of the yr, as we get by means of a few of our spring sports activities which might be beginning in that journey as effectively — baseball, lacrosse, the tennis groups — we’ll be capable of have a look at it holistically and study quite a lot of classes on what we will do to finest help our groups and our athletes transferring ahead.
One problem that’s holding you or different athletic administrators up at evening proper now?
Cohen: Did you simply say one? That’s humorous!
To begin with, I really like being an athletic director, and I really like being athletic director at USC. It means a lot to so many individuals, so it’s such a privilege. And with that privilege comes quite a lot of expectations to do proper by the college and each individual that care about it. So there’s probably not one factor, there’s so many issues within the setting we’re in. And we’re within the individuals enterprise, so individuals are sophisticated and they are often messy. So it’s type of that.
So far as the place we’re going, I really feel like our employees is admittedly invigorated by it. Sure it’s onerous. Sure it’s difficult. Any time you ever get higher, you solely develop by means of the onerous stuff. I really feel like after being right here 18 months now, I really feel like we’ve made quite a lot of progress in getting ourselves aligned and unified and invested the correct method, and our group has achieved an important job of making readability inside the group about who we need to be. So I feel we’re simply motivated to go win this factor. Win the brand new period. Seize the alternatives. And there’s going to be loads of sleepless nights doing it, however tjeres going to be loads of celebrations alongside the best way, too. And that’s why I really like what I do.