LOS ANGELES — Jen Cohen stepped into the role of USC athletic director nearly 18 months ago. She inherited Lincoln Riley as head coach, oversaw a transition to the Big Ten and hired a new men’s basketball coach within her first year on the job while navigating the changing landscape of college athletics.
The Athletic spoke with Cohen on Thursday about all facets of USC athletics.
Note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Obviously, revenue sharing is the biggest thing going on in college sports right now. If the House settlement goes through, what does it mean for the future of the athletic department at USC?
I think, first, what’s exciting about House is it gives us the opportunity to invest more in our student-athletes, which I think is always an awesome thing. We’ve been doing a lot of work here for several months and our staff’s done an incredible job preparing what I would say is a road map for the future. It’s been a great process to go through as far as being collaborative with the campus, kind of reprioritizing how important athletics is to our university community. We’re not going to be specifically sharing tentative plans until, if and when the House settlement gets approved (potentially in April).
What we have been doing and what I’m happy to share is just how we’ve been approaching decision-making and modeling and how we’re evaluating what we think is in the best interest of USC athletics. We’ve had a few main, guiding principles in the work we’ve been doing. The first is ensuring championship-level football. That is a huge part of who we are at USC, and football is the big economic engine of our athletic department. It allows for us to do a lot for a lot of other programs and students so we are prioritizing that in our planning. Yet, at the same time, broad-based athletic success is part of the DNA at USC. … With what Lindsay (Gottlieb) is doing with women’s basketball, Coach Muss’ (Eric Musselman) program is on the rise and our Olympic sport heritage is something we’re really proud of here. It’s something we’re not just proud of as an athletic department, the university is really proud of it too. With the Olympics coming, we want to ensure we’re prioritizing broad-based success.
In all that, we’re still trying to juggle that we have massive financial responsibilities through this. These are added expenses. It’s not just revenue share. It’s a combination of revenue and scholarships. So that’s expensive. While we’re really proud to invest more, we also realize we have a responsibility within our department to operate differently. … You’ve seen that with the changes we’ve made in football and how we’re investing differently. We’re going to have to do that across the whole athletic department. And we’re going to be asking for support, too, from our community. We’re all going to have to adapt. It’s going to be different, but different isn’t bad. Different’s exciting and there’s plenty of opportunities to seize in this. Our goal is to win the era — the new era of college athletics. That’s how we’re looking at this thing.
Across the country, there have been athletic directors or schools who have talked about cutting some athletic programs. Do you anticipate having to cut any programs?
No, we’re fully committed to ensuring broad-based excellence and success for athletic programs moving forward. That’s the plan — not only to maintain our programs but to continue to support and resource our student-athletes in a way they can keep reaching their full potential. USC is just kind of an extraordinary place in that way. Everything about the university is about opportunity and excellence, and our athletic department is a reflection of that.
Lincoln Riley is 26-14 in the three seasons at USC. (G Fiume / Getty Images)
What does it mean for future NIL efforts? Will House of Victory (the official NIL collective of USC athletics) be brought into the athletic department?
I think there are a lot of unanswered questions regarding NIL in general and how’s it going to be enforced and when is the clearinghouse going to go into effect. I think all of those questions and the question of what role collectives may or may not play in the future, we’re working on that at the conference level and we’re at the table and I’m at the table in conversations about that, but I think that work is really important for the future. At the same time, we’re not slowing down here in our commitment to NIL and our commitment to maximizing NIL opportunities for all of our student-athletes. We’re pretty bullish about the market we’re in and the history and tradition we have, and the quality of athletes and students we have here, and we think that’s a great differentiator in whatever the model looks like moving forward.
Is there a target number football-wise you think you need to be at to be competitive in the Big Ten and nationally? (Ohio State athletic director) Ross Bjork talked about how they spent $20 million on their roster. Is there a certain number you think you need to be at?
Yeah, we understand what’s going on in the market and what our competitors are doing. I’ll be much more specific about how we’re investing, if and when the settlement agreement gets passed in April.
Getting football back on track is one of the biggest things at USC right now. When you sat down with Lincoln after the season, what were the priorities you felt needed to be addressed?
I mean, our expectation is we deliver a championship-level football program. We’re not going to shy away from that standard here at USC. We think it’s certainly what draws all of us to be here — the high level of expectations that we have. Lincoln and I are very aligned on that expectation and very invested in supporting the program and putting all the right pieces into structure and place for us to be successful. The conversation is really not just end of season. They’re kind of ongoing, all the time. I say that because it’s changing so rapidly. History’s changing rapidly. This idea (that) there’s this cyclical recap at the end of the year, it’s just not even how it works anymore. It’s constant and ongoing. There are definitely opportunities to sit down and develop a plan at the end of the season, which we did, but our conversations are continuous in figuring out what are the missing pieces and what can we put in place and how quickly can we ensure we get this program where it needs to be and where we expect it to be.
So I’m pleased with a lot of progress we’ve made since the season ended. I believe we put a really great coaching staff together. I think retention is really important right now from a consistency standpoint for this program. We made some really good hires to complement the existing staff and to bring some different energy, experience, recruiting into the building.
A huge priority for both Lincoln and I was to ensure he could focus on coaching the team and focus on football. His job as a head coach, like every head coach in college football, has changed so much certainly since he’s been here, but just in the last six months. That’s how crazy things have evolved in our operations. We’re both really clear and shared the understanding that he needed more support around him to focus on roster management, recruiting, eval, how we’re going to manage the budget and negotiations and all those things that are now part of the college football landscape that didn’t exist a few years ago.
So getting GM Chad (Bowden) hired, really feel so excited about him for both of us and being able to allow Chad to have the resources to build the infrastructure. Those are some of the main priorities we’ve been focusing on, and I think we’ve had a lot of positive momentum since the season ended and we’re going to keep building off that.
Getting a general manager in place was such a big priority for you guys. Now that it’s done, what’s the next big thing to tackle?
Like I said, it’s ongoing. It’s just a competitive environment so we need to keep supporting with our revenue share plan, NIL and other resources. We need to support the vision that both Chad and Lincoln have and how we’re going to manage rosters and recruiting moving forward while obviously being really excited about the facility, too. We’ve closed on a couple big gifts. We have two more Cornerstone Donors. Our goal is to raise 11 $10 million gifts for the 11 national championships that we have, in addition to other gifts. We have had two more Cornerstone gifts recently so we’re at $174 million in that campaign. We’re really excited about the sports performance areas there. I think sports science and sports performance are just cutting-edge in how you can differentiate your programs. We’re focusing on that as well as a number of things that are happening at the Big Ten level. It’s a continuous battle to make sure you’re staying ahead in a number of different areas so we’re full steam ahead.
General managers are so new to college football and the structure of a front office is new and evolving. How is the structure going to work at USC? Will Chad report to Lincoln? Will he report to you?
He reports to both of us. He has a reporting line to me, but the relationship between him and Lincoln is everything. That’s why I’m personally so excited about Chad. He brings a great set of experiences — he’s got the recruiting side down, he knows it well, but he also has a really good eye for talent. He did a lot, quite frankly, with less at Notre Dame. So we know he knows how to build a roster and all of those important elements. But the rapport and trust between the two of them is essential for us to be successful. They have that with each other. Chad really respects Lincoln as a coach and at the same time, it’s important that both Chad and Lincoln know they have me in this position fighting every battle I can and fighting for every resource I can to ensure they’re successful. So it’s a partnership with us, and then Chad will obviously have a number of areas reporting directly through him.
It’s almost been a year and a half since you’ve been hired. When you stepped into the role, Lincoln was already in place. What’s it been like developing a relationship with him?
We’re really aligned on wanting to win. And I think when you have shared priorities, it helps you figure out a way to work together to get there. I think it’s always a new thing for everybody. It’s new when a coach has a new boss come in who they’ve never worked with who didn’t hire them. It’s also new for me to not hire a football coach. I think it’s really evolved and grown over time. We’ve gone through a lot of change in how the business is operating. So it’s allowed for us to really have a lot of dialogue about philosophies and how we think we’re going to get there. I think we’ve developed trust over time in figuring what’s best for USC, and we both came here for the same reason. We both left good jobs, right? We both came here because we believe in USC. I believe in the potential in this place so much. It’s already been done before and we want to do it again. I think we’re just going to keep working together to make sure he and the staff have the support they need. The expectation is to win.
Based on what you’ve seen in the past year and a half, what are the football reasons you think Lincoln can get the program to where it wants to go?
There are a number of things. One, he’s done it before. He’s led championship-level programs before so he has that experience. USC offers everything. I think the resources and the vision and all that are really aligned. The investments are there and I feel like he has some really good people around him to help him and support him as the model and environment has adapted.
Lincoln has talked a lot about future nonconference scheduling. Everyone wants to know about the Notre Dame series. What’s the outlook for that rivalry?
It’s such an important series to our fans and both universities. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: In an ideal world, we’re going to keep playing each other. With that being said, the landscape has changed dramatically. We’re now playing in a conference where we fly back and forth across the country every other week, and CFP expansion and how you get access to the CFP and how things are seeded and selected. Those, to me, are important, unanswered questions. So we remain in conversations with Notre Dame about the series. I think we’re clear to each other (that) we’re going to continue to evaluate what’s best, and it’s my job to evaluate what’s best for our student-athletes and our program. As we keep doing that, we’re excited to go back to South Bend next year.
What’s the first year in a new league been like?
We’re kind of just halfway through the transition. I think there are going to be a lot of lessons learned and things we’ve got to adapt to and change once we get through all of our seasons. That being said, the overall response we’ve had internally and externally has been really positive. Shoutout to soccer because they’re our history maker in winning our first-ever Big Ten title. We expect to win more of those in our other sports. The way we’re covered and exposure, in my opinion, has improved significantly. … The exposure of it and the brand awareness and just the national nature of this conference and the schools that we play against, that’s really special and unique. Probably a big thing that doesn’t get noticed in all this transition is that we have a really important seat at the table for the future of college athletics by being in this conference. You really want to have that seat right now. … Our academic success this fall, with the three sports that travel Big Ten schedules, were all at or above academic performance from last year.
I think we’ll learn a lot. Basketball, their travel schedule is probably most impacted in the Big Ten (among all) of our sports. So we’ll get through this season and kind of learn a lot from that to see what we could do to support them. Then we have spring sports that will go, and we have a whole mechanism to evaluate the student experience. It’s all data-driven and it’s going to be really helpful.
I’m proud of our membership in the Big Ten and I think it’s only going to keep getting better for us moving forward.
Two things you’ve mentioned in this talk are alignment and adapting. President Carol Folt will retire at the end of the academic year. What’s that new phase going to be like for you having to build a relationship with a new president?
That’s a really important relationship. I have so much confidence in this board, this group of trustees, led by Suzanne Nora Johnson. We established a close relationship from the beginning because she was part of my hiring process. I know their commitment to athletics, their commitment to students and their commitment to USC. I feel really confident in the process they’ll put in place to bring in a great leader. I think I’m a great fit for USC, so I think we’re going to be a winning match, whoever that is that they hire.
Also, Beong-Soo Kim, he’s going to be interim (president) at a really important time. Lucky for us that Beong has been very integrated into athletics, also part of the hiring process for us, also a partner, also somebody not just myself but many other people in our department have a meaningful relationship with and somebody that is really regarded and trusted on campus. So I feel really supported and good about the vision and plan that the board has. It’s USC, and USC has never been stronger, and we’re going to get a great leader for this university.
(Photo of Jen Cohen and Reggie Bush: Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
