This spring, legendary USC football coach Pete Carroll is returning to campus — not on the field, but in the classroom — to teach graduating seniors his winning philosophy. Carroll will join USC Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life Varun Soni to co-teach BUAD 498: The Game Is Life, a new Marshall School of Business course designed to help students develop their personal gameplan for life after graduation, while using their USC education to conquer challenges along the way.

The course will be a comprehensive approach to the nature of success, bringing together Carroll’s “Win Forever” philosophy of maximizing potential through a competitive mindset with Soni’s expertise in mindfulness and purpose-driven leadership. The course will encourage students to compete and pursue excellence by incorporating mind, body, and spirit into all facets of life and work.

“Our lives are filled with great challenges and so many opportunities, each one calling for us to seek to find our way,” Carroll said. “We all have the power to compete everyday to bring our best and make the most of each challenge. Competing has always meant ‘striving’ to be our best. In our course, Dean Soni and I will hopefully help each student find their way to Win Forever.”

Alongside Carroll, Dean Varun Soni will facilitate the development of a growth mindset by drawing on leadership lessons shared in sports and spirituality.

“As students graduate, they inevitably find themselves on a path that requires them to deal with endless obstacles and opportunities,” Soni said. “Game Is Life empowers them to make a plan, adopt a mindset, and ask each person the enduring question: How do I make the most of my life?”

The course structure reflects this holistic approach. Fifty graduating seniors will develop personal gameplans to guide their post-graduation choices, exploring practices for cultivating resilience, competition, joy, and trust. Between classes, students will tackle assignments and exercises that bring theory into practice.

Dean Geoff Garrett has spoken about the major role sports plays in global culture, media, and economics. The new course embraces that vision, teaching leadership through the lens of the competitive spirit, self-improvement, and personal empowerment of sports.

“With The Game Is Life, Pete and Varun are bringing the competitive spirit of sports to the lives of our students,” Garrett said. “This course will be leadership in action, with two inspiring and visionary leaders from very different walks of life coming together to help our students develop not only the skillsets but also the mindsets to succeed in their careers and throughout their lives.”