Mike Bohn says Big Ten expansion helps 'immensely' in College Football Playoff chances

USC still hasn’t made the College Football Playoff since its inception in 2014 and the Pac-12 hasn’t had a representative since 2016. However, the Trojans could be in better position to play for a national championship when they join the Big Ten along with UCLA in 2024, according to AD Mike Bohn.

Bohn joined “The Gene Smith Podcast” with Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith and addressed how Big Ten expansion impacts CFP chances. The CFP is also set to expand in the next few years, and Bohn said the level of exposure the Big Ten gets will help playoff decision-makers see the on-field product better.

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“I think it helps us immensely,” Bohn said. “All of us. Strength of schedule, visibility. There is going to be nobody that is a participant in that process that isn’t going to be able to see our games featured at the right times. A lot of people don’t understand the value of shouldered programming around that. If they’re doing a feature on Coach [Ryan] Day or Coach [Lincoln] Riley, they’re going to learn a lot about that.

“If they’re going to see Caleb Williams and learn about him and what’s going on on and our great players and, obviously, players at Ohio State. All those different pieces raise the profile and the respect that people have for your teams, so that’s extremely valuable.”

Mike Bohn: USC will have a better strength of schedule in the Big Ten

Bohn also dove deeper into the strength of schedule aspect of switching leagues. USC has a game scheduled against LSU in 2024 — the year the Trojans join the Big Ten — and that decision came about because of the level of competition within the Pac-12.

“Lincoln wants me — I know it’s crazy — we scheduled a game the first year we’re in the Big Ten, we open up in Las Vegas against LSU, Gene,” Bohn said. “I’m not thinking that idea [looks] real good right now. But you have to remember, when we made that agreement, we were in the Pac-12 and we needed strength of schedule, and we needed to have that.”

However, Bohn is familiar with building schedules to increase competition. Before he arrived at USC, he was the athletic director at Cincinnati, where he helped the Bearcats put a strong enough schedule to compete for a CFP spot. That ended up working out as Cincinnati became the first G5 team to make the CFP.

In the Big Ten, Bohn said scheduling won’t be much of an issue.

“It is similar to when Gene helped me hire Luke Fickell at Cincinnati and putting that together and Gene was an incredible partner there and working with Luke,” Bohn said. “We were like, ‘We’ve got to play Notre Dame, we’ve got to play Indiana, we’ve got to play schools like that and raise the schedule in a way that gives you respect.’ I think that’s not going to be a challenge [in the Big Ten].”