USC Reportedly Hires a Director of AI Ahead of 2026 Season, 1st Known Position of Its Kind in CFB

The USC football program is hiring Conor McQuiston to operate as director of artificial intelligence, according to multiple reports, after he served as the team's director of football analytics in 2025.

Per Antonio Morales of The Athletic, "Over the past year, McQuiston has worked on projects focused on opponent scouting, tendencies and similar matters. The source said the program will continue to hire people to bolster its analytics as a result of this move. It's unclear what McQuiston's focus will be as the director of AI; the sport is still in the early stages of deploying it across the football landscape."

John Brice of USA Today added that the school recently received a $200 million gift from USC alum Mark Stevens and his wife, Mary, for AI research. Folks within USC reportedly believe McQuiston will be the first person in college football to have a dedicated AI role.

McQuiston will report to USC general manager Chad Bowden, per Brice.

AI is already being used in other facets of the sport, however, including recruiting.

"We have some alums... they built out an (AI) agent that watches film," a personnel staffer at a Power 4 program told Athletic's Antonio Morales in early May. "They have our grades. It's watched hundreds of hours of film to train itself for watching a kid's highlights and giving him an initial grade. ... And if they have a good enough grade, we'll dig into them more."