Penn State’s former Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour is joining an interim leadership team at USC, the school announced Thursday. Barbour joins the group after USC’s former athletic director, Mike Bohn, resigned on May 19.

Bohn, who spent four years with the Trojans, most notably organized the school’s merger into the Big Ten alongside UCLA. Barbour, who worked at two Big Ten programs over her career, will be part of USC’s efforts to maintain its course for a 2024 entrance to the conference.

“This team brings depth, experience, and great expertise in championship-level Division I intercollegiate athletics, including NIL, recruiting and facilities management, operations, marketing, finance, and Big Ten conference processes and procedures,” USC President Carol Folt said. “They will augment the leadership and staff in our department and provide a broad national perspective on changes taking place nationally.

Barbour spent eight years at the helm of Penn State’s athletics department after she joined the school in 2014 as its athletic director and was later promoted to vice president for intercollegiate athletics in 2019. Over her time in Happy Valley, Barbour oversaw several national championships, the development of new sports facilities, and the introduction of NIL to the Penn State landscape. Barbour was also named Sports Business Journal’s Athletic Director of the Year in 2022 near the end of her time at Penn State.

Before her arrival at Penn State, Barbour spent time at Cal Berkeley, Notre Dame, Tulane, and Northwestern. After her retirement from Penn State, she moved to a position with Huron Consulting Group in 2023.

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Joe Lister

Joe, shockingly, was Onward State's managing editor from 2024-25. It was an honor. He's off employed doing journalism things, hopefully. If you want to complain about anything he's ever written, you can find him on Twitter (iamjoelister), email (jlister2021@gmail.com), or Signal (iamjoelister.93).

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