If College Football Is The Wild West USC’s Mascot Should Be The Cowboy

ARLINGTON, TX – JANUARY 02: The USC Trojans mascot waves a flag on the field during the Goodyear Cotton Bowl game between the USC Trojans and Tulane Green Wave on January 02, 2023 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. (Photo by Matthew Visinsky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

How does a team that went 4-5 in the Big 10 Conference and 7-6 overall in 2024 end up with the second-ranked recruiting class in the nation in 2026 (right behind Georgia)?

Fight On For Old SC

Lincoln Riley was hired as head coach in 2022 with HIGH expectations. After all, he had led the Oklahoma Sooners to four Big 12 Championships and three college football playoff appearances. He had also coached two Heisman trophy winners and he had an overall winning percentage of .846, the highest in the history of the program! Clearly here was the person to restore USC to its accustomed place of glory in college football.

Yet three years later USC has yet to make the College Football Playoff and 2024 was Riley’s worst season yet. His seat was clearly getting hot. Now what?

Enter Chad Bowden And NIL

Chad Bowden, (age 30!) was named General Manager of USC Football Operations in January of this year after spending the previous three seasons at Notre Dame. In 2024 Notre Dame promoted him to GM (in part to thwart Michigan from hiring him to be its GM), where he was part of their run to the national championship game versus Ohio State. Bowden, in a statement, called the role at USC a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

“This is a place with the resources, facilities and support to build a perennial winner,” Bowden said, “and I’m excited to get to work to help bring more national championships to USC.”

Bowden would instantly hit the recruiting trail, making the best football recruits in California his top priority day. His focus combined with new levels of NIL monies would pay off big time as by July of 2025 (just six months later) 247 Sports would rank the Trojans 2026 class as the No. 2 recruiting class in the country just behind Georgia. 17 of USC’s 31 commits as of August 18, 2025 are from California. Nine of those 17 commits are rated four-star prospects or higher. And five-star tight end Mark Bowman of perennial high school powerhouse Mater Dei is leading the parade.

Mark Bowman: #1-Rated Tight End

Despite Bowman playing his high school football less than 50 miles from USC’s campus, the Trojans were behind the eight ball for Bowman when he reclassified from the 2027 to the 2026 class earlier this year. USC cranked up its pursuit when Bowden and new tight ends coach Chad Savage arrived on campus, and led the charge for the No. 1-rated tight end.

Georgia, Texas and Alabama were considered the favorites for Bowman heading into the official visits season, but it was USC who landed a commitment from the highly coveted pass-catcher on May 30. So how did USC, playing catch-up ball beat out the likes of Georgia, Texas and Alabama for the #1-rated tight end in the country?

Show Me The Money

USC would make Bowman a deal he could not refuse. The five-star standout from Mater Dei High School is projected to earn between $5 million and $6.5 million through NIL deals, a figure that would make him the highest-paid tight end the sport has ever seen. To compete with the top programs for recruits like Bowman USC had to offer more than a top coach, great facilities and a huge media market (LA): It had to be willing to play the money game.

Enter Learfield Communications

On June 5th, 2025 there was a joint press release by the University of Southern California (USC) Athletics and Learfield communications. USC had just signed a 15-year partnership deal to transform their revenue generation, multimedia rights, NIL and fan engagement solutions. Starting in July 2026, this partnership, the statement said, will empower USC to enhance its operations and significantly increase revenue, adapting to the rapidly evolving landscape of college athletics.

“We are thrilled to announce this transformational partnership with Learfield and to leverage their innovation and expertise in our work to win the new era of college athletics,” said Jen Cohen, USC’s Charles Griffin Cale Director of Athletics. “Learfield’s combination of cutting-edge solutions, forward-thinking revenue-generation strategies, and collaborative leadership and focus will be invaluable in our work to better engage new and existing fans, promote and expand the iconic USC brand, and to generate the resources needed to maximize our investment in student-athletes.”

Who Is Learfield Communications?

If you are asking that question you are not alone–I never heard of Learfield before researching this story. The short answer is: Learfield is BIG and they have been around a long time.

In short, Learfield is essentially the bridge between corporate America and college sports, managing how brands, universities, and fans interact—through sponsorships, media, and technology. Learfield started in 1972 in Jefferson City, Missouri, originally as an agriculture-focused radio company. Founder Clyde Lear slowly would build it from a small farm radio network into a nationwide college sports powerhouse.
Over the following five decades he and partner Derry Brownfield would shift from farm broadcasting to becoming the leading multimedia rights holder and marketing partner for college athletics.

Today Learfield:

• Partners with over 200 universities and conferences across the U.S.;
• Already manages sponsorship and media deals for many of the biggest NCAA programs (like Alabama, Texas, and Ohio State).
• Operates college sports radio networks, producing live broadcasts and coaches’ shows.

Learfield specializes in college sports marketing and media rights, handling: (a) Multimedia Rights (b) Sponsorships (c) Ticketing, Licensing and NIL and (d) Digital and Data platforms, fan engagement tools and analytics services to help schools connect with their audiences.

There’s A New Sheriff In Town

In short, USC made a commitment to enter the wild west of College Football 2025 with both six-shooters blazing. And so far it appears to be working. In addition to raising its NIL collective war chest to $20.5 million for the 2025-2026 football season the 15-year partnership with Learfield provides a long term framework for further enhancing multimedia revenue, sponsorship, ticket revenues, and licensing and NIL deals for players.

Fight on, indeed, for old SC.