USC Athletic Director Lynn Swann Resigns

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - USC Director of Athletics and football legend Lynn Swann has resigned, the university announced Monday.

In an email Monday, USC President Carol Folt wrote: "I am writing to share my sincere appreciation for Lynn Swann, who has decided to resign from his position as the Director of Athletics effective today. Lynn has been a leader on and off the field at USC for nearly five decades, and he will forever be a valued member of the Trojan family."

Dave Roberts, special adviser to Folt and the NCAA's vice chair of the Committee on Infractions, will fill the athletic director post on an interim basis until a permanent replacement is named, Folt said.

Folt told the LA Times that Swann had decided to resign to give her a chance to build her own leadership team.

There was no immediate comment from Swann.

Swann - who was named director in 2016 - helped lead the Trojans to an undefeated national championship season in 1972.

He won four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers and was named MVP of Super Bowl X.

Swann retired from the NFL in 1983 and was later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001.

He earned his bachelor's degree in public relations from USC.

USC's athletics department has seen multiple people implicated in a nationwide college-admissions cheating scandal that involved parents paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to have their children admitted to USC and other elite schools, often by the students posing as athletic recruits in sports which they often never played.

Former USC women's soccer head coach Ali Khosroshahin has agreed to plead guilty in the case, while his assistant, Laura Janke, has already pleaded guilty. Prosecutors say the pair were paid about $350,000 to designate four students as soccer recruits "despite the fact that none of those children
played competitive soccer."

USC Senior Associate Athletic Director Donna Heinel and water polo head coach Jovan Vavic were also charged in the case, and were fired from their
jobs.

(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)