USC AD Mike Bohn emphasizes impact of player letter on Pac-12 restart

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As USC athletic director Mike Bohn talked with reporters Thursday night, sharing his initial reaction to the momentous news that a Pac-12 football season was back on track and starting Nov. 6, he wanted to make sure his Trojans football players got their due credit for the role they played in that process.

This all had started last Tuesday when the USC players posted an open letter on social media to California Gov. Gavin Newsom petitioning for the opportunity to play a season. By the next morning, Newsom and Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott were talking, Newsom was being asked about the player letter in a news conference and the dominoes were suddenly falling in the favor of a Pac-12 football season.

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"I'd be remiss if I didn't really salute the student-athletes who took the initiative from our football team to engage with Gov. Newsom, and the way they handled themselves during that process was really impressive to me. I couldn't have been prouder," Bohn said Thursday night. "We're always going to support our student-athletes using their voice. That's central to our vision to be the most student-athlete centric athletic program in the country, but they seized the moment. I want to commend them for, first, really ensuring that they were educated on the public health limitations that were challenges for us. They were measured, they were informed and they represented USC with class and dignity in their letter, and I think the impact that it had on our return to play is self-evident.

"I'm really proud of them, and I'm not sure we'd be where we are today without their leadership and how that became contagious to other leaders throughout the Pac-12 Conference."

The player letter was certainly a well-orchestrated and polished maneuver that generated significant attention on Twitter and was soon echoed by players from other schools throughout the conference.

But, Bohn was asked, how was it clear to him that it actually made a direct impact on the process?

"Well, when the governor is not having direct contact with the commissioner prior to that, I think it gives you a pretty clear indication," he said candidly. "My hats off to the governor responding so quickly and picking up the phone and calling Larry Scott. We just hadn't had [those] corner office conversations up until that point, so that's a big move. And obviously other members of the Pac-12 beginning to get engaged. I believe the other athletic directors in the conference recognized that USC was going to do everything they can to take a leadership role in trying to get some of those doors and conversations started, and that clearly happened."

Many fans have long felt that USC needs to exert its leverage in the Pac-12 more, and by all accounts the Trojans -- from the administration to the players, of course, with that letter -- played a driving role in getting this done over the last week and a half. In addition to drawing the spotlight on Newsom and the state public health guidelines prohibiting college teams in California from working out in groups, or "cohorts", of 12 or less -- untenable for any meaningful football practice -- Bohn joined forces with UCLA AD Martin Jarmond to make sure the same conversation happened with LA County public health officials.

The red tape hasn't officially been cleared yet. The cohort limits haven't formally been changed, and teams in California couldn't hold a full traditional contact football practice today, even after the Pac-12 announcement Thursday. But whatever conversations have been had between the conference and the state and counties has conveyed the confidence that the necessary adjustments will be made to the restrictions. USC isn't expected to start full practices until early October, so nothing is being held up in the meantime.

"That's still a work in progress and we don't have every single aspect of this buttoned up yet, so we have some work to do there," Bohn said. "Again, they are great listeners, but they also have a full plate of issues. But we're confident we have wonderful relationships with them. ...

"We've had candid conversations with them, and I think that's where our administration really -- from other areas of campus to include the athletic department -- were really on the forefront of that with the league and helping others in the state, and I'm proud that USC took the lead on pulling all that together. We don't have all those specifics yet, but we have enough confidence in our dialogue and engagement with them that we're going to have something that works well."

As for the player letter, Bohn was asked how that came together.

"As I reflect back on it, it was really organic on the players thinking, hey, we were engaged with Gov. Newsom's office associated with Name, Image and Likeness. The governor and the state has been very supportive of student-athletes' rights and initiatives. And I think that our players kind of thought, you know what, our leaders are with us, particularly from the state house, and we ought to probably reach out to them and share that with them," he said. "I really saluted them for saying, hey, we want to do this, and then they began asking a lot of questions from leaders within our athletic department that helped them understand it. They really learned what those issues were and then they wrote a very heartfelt, honest, intelligent letter to the governor, and my hats off for him responding in one day.

"That's pretty impressive when you consider the challenges in our state, the fires and the COVID challenge and unemployment, homeless, you could on and on and on. I just thought that was really great, and the fact he reached out to commissioner Scott so quick. So it was about players taking this time, their focus, their dedication, their desire to play, and doing it with such class, dignity, intelligence and passion that was so effective. That gives you an idea of how it really came together, but they did that very quickly and I'm proud of them."