Paul Perrier begins work as USC’s deputy athletic director

With the search for its new athletic director ongoing, USC made its first administrative hire this week in an athletic department that could soon look very different.

Paul Perrier began work this week as USC’s deputy athletic director after spending the last four years as a senior associate athletic director and chief compliance officer at Rutgers. Perrier previously spent six years in athletics compliance at USC, where he worked with Dave Roberts, currently USC’s interim athletic director.

Perrier’s experience in compliance could be useful for an athletic department that dealt with scandal during the tenure of Lynn Swann, who resigned abruptly this month. There was no deputy athletic director during Swann’s time as athletic director.

In his previous stint in compliance at USC, Perrier helped conduct and supervise investigations of potential NCAA or Pac-12 violations.

While USC continues its search for a new athletic director, Perrier is the first athletics administrator to be hired by Roberts, who has said he has no intention of being more than interim athletic director.