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USC AD candidate profile: Pat Chun of Washington State

The USC athletic director search is on. The University of Southern California has set in motion a transition plan with an interim athletic department administrator plus a Big Ten transition team, two clear indications the school is assembling people and ideas to help in the search for the next permanent athletic director at the school.

We have looked at a few different candidates over the past several days. These aren’t people who have said they want the job, but at this stage, the search isn’t very defined. It’s obvious this is a coveted job, but we don’t yet know who is centrally in play. We don’t yet have a sense of where interest in the job is mutual. Lots of people will want this job, but USC has to want to pursue a specific candidate. We don’t yet know the list of candidates USC has at the top of its list. Therefore, any current references to candidates are very non-specific in that USC might not be prioritizing them.

Nevertheless, we can say that various candidates are attractive, even if USC hasn’t yet expressed a desire to interview them.

You will want to consult the USC big board created by consultant Tony Altimore at The Voice of College Football. He broke the candidates list into several categories. One includes “world class athletic directors” who would do great at USC.

One of them is Pat Chun, the current athletic director at Washington State.

Chun has done a great job developing the WSU athletic department. The Cougars’ women’s basketball team won the first Women’s Pac-12 Tournament championship in program history. Football is respectable (bowl-level achievement is always a success in Pullman). Washington State’s athletic department fundraising has grown under Chun, and the results match the investments: both have improved in his tenure.

Chun was the athletic director at Florida Atlantic (2012-2018) who hired Lane Kiffin, who instantly revitalized the football program. Chun previously worked within the Ohio State athletic department, giving him crucial exposure to — and experience within — the Big Ten.

Chun would make an excellent athletic director at USC if offered the job.

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