Haden discusses state of athletic landscape
It’s a brisk fall Saturday morning during a bye week for USC, and Athletic Director Pat Haden can be found working out on his treadmill at home, doing what most people expect him to be doing — watching college football.
“I bet I spend about 20 hours a week watching games,” Haden said.
Every college student might wish they could be as effective of a multitasker as the 62-year-old Haden, who is now in his sixth year as the athletic director of his alma mater.
And if the job of juggling 21 intercollegiate sports here at USC wasn’t tough enough, Haden also evaluates the entire college football landscape every week as a member of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.
Beginning the first week of November, Haden, who along with University of Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez primarily focuses on the Atlantic Coast Conference, will join the rest of the Committee in Dallas, Texas; to produce the first edition of this year’s playoff rankings.
“I look at all the teams and rank them according to five or six metrics that I have,” Haden said. “It takes up a lot of time.”
If the Trojans are being discussed, though, Haden said that he has to recuse himself from the conversation.
“The idea is to get recused a lot because it means they’re talking about your school,” Haden said.
The act of maintaining equilibrium in his commitments is nothing new to Haden, who has essentially been doing so for the majority of his life.
During his college-playing days at USC, Haden was a member of two national championship teams and was the Co-MVP of the 1975 Rose Bowl, all while working his way to two Academic All-American honors and graduating from the University magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
Then as a Rhodes Scholar, Haden played professional football for the Southern California Sun of the World Football League for a year, then for the St. Louis Rams while studying economics at Oxford.
He was the epitome of the balanced student-athlete, and in his first five years as athletic director he has sought out to put his student-athletes in a favorable position to do the same by prioritizing academia, community service and athletic performance.
“In all three areas, we’ve done a lot, and we’re proud of that,” Haden said. “Everything about the University is on an upswing; and we need to be in the Athletic Department as good or try to be better than the rest of the University. That’s what we wake up every morning trying to do, and it’s a real challenge.”
Taking care of student-athletes has been a prime concern for Haden during his tenure. USC was the first university in the Pac-12 and second in the country to offer guaranteed four-year scholarships and also spends more money on the additional food benefit for student-athletes than anyone in the conference, according to Haden.
“We will do as much as we possibly can for our student-athletes,” Haden said.
This seemingly wasn’t the case when Haden was brought in to succeed Mike Garrett back in 2010, which was just the beginning of a tumultuous journey for USC amid the cloud of NCAA sanctions.
“I stepped into a bit of mess and felt that we really needed to reboot virtually everything and adopt this mantra of ‘continuous improvement,’” Haden said.
Since Haden took over, Athletics has produced 274 first-team All-Americans, 32 individual national champions and 10 team national titles. Meanwhile, he oversaw an increase in GPA, graduation rates and community service, in addition to the building of numerous facilities including the John McKay Center, Uytengsu Aquatics Center and Merle Norman Stadium for beach volleyball, among others.
After inheriting the Coliseum’s lease in 2013, the Athletic Department’s next big project is to revamp the historic stadium, according to Haden.
Of course, the Coliseum continues to house the No. 17-ranked USC football team. Haden believes the Trojans should be as talented as any team they face this year, but points out the increased talent and depth of the Pac-12 Conference, which has made it difficult for USC to reclaim its status as a perennial powerhouse.
“It’s a different era than a few years ago when there weren’t a lot of good teams in the Pac-12,” Haden said. “I really believe that the Pac-12 South is not going to be decided until the last game of the year.”
When asked how many years he has left in the tank as Athletic director, the 62-year-old said that he honestly didn’t have an answer and rather than honing in on any type of legacy, he wants the focus to remain on improving USC Athletics.
“I’m not interested in the legacy of Pat Haden,” Haden said. “I want us to continue to improve, and I don’t feel like I need to be remembered for anything. Somebody’s going to take my place and continue to do this job and do it better than I — that’s the idea.”