Twice in the last week USC athletic director Mike Bohn has uttered public comments that should rattle the frosted-glass windows of Commissioner Larry Scott’s office at Pac-12 Conference headquarters.

Bohn shouldn’t be alone.

The University of Oregon should be doing it, too.

A week ago, when asked by USCFootball.com’s Ryan Abraham if the Trojans would consider football going independent or joining another conference, Bohn said, “I think right now, Larry would agree with this, everything is on the table.”

As in, say, if NBC approached USC and wanted to sign the Trojans to a lucrative Notre Dame-like television partnership, they’d listen. And they should, given the poor trajectory of the conference. Bohn later doubled down in an interview with Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports.

“There’s no talk of (leaving), but guess what? If it was on the table, we would certainly explore that,” Bohn said. "But I’ve got to be careful. The league is really tender.

“The context that I was talking about was whether it was league TV stuff, creative pieces with any other type of deliverable, it has to be on the table. Guess what? If that helps (the league) understand the importance of what our campuses are going through, so be it.”

Bohn later added, “I don’t want to walk it back, but hopefully that gives it a little more context.”

I love what Bohn did there. He’s sitting on one of the conference’s long-standing, valuable brands, and decided to exert some old-fashioned leverage. It was candid and authentic. Also, his comments were a clear deviation from the unified messaging that Scott forced on conference members 15 months earlier after he hired a high-priced crisis-management firm.

FleishmanHillard designed a 34-page brochure outlining strategy for the members. Committees were formed. Talking points were established. Also Pac-12′s Vice President of Communications, Andrew Walker, issued a memo to the Presidents and Chancellors of the dozen conference universities, urging them to stick together and present a unified face.

A passage from Walker read: “Our shared interest in a strong Pac-12 brand is a strategic priority given the brand’s impact on the valuation of our collective media and sponsorship rights, recruitment efforts on campuses, impact on overall University brands, and NCAA selection processes in football and basketball, among other reasons.”

Bohn broke from that and put USC’s best interests first. That’s his job and he performed it well. Which made me wonder why Oregon isn’t doing more to publicly set itself apart from the rest of the Pac-12 right now.

The Ducks have a wonderful and valuable brand. They’ve got a rabid fan base that connects nationally. Athletic director Rob Mullens is coming off being the chair of the College Football Playoff selection committee. Mario Cristobal’s football program is viewed as a contender. Kelly Graves’ women’s basketball program looks like a strong bet to reach the Final Four and is a huge national television draw.

If he hasn’t already, University of Oregon President Michael Schill may look around and wonder why the Ducks are stuck in a sad-sack conference led by a commissioner who operates with his own self interests. Schill is an interesting part of the equation. He has a seat on the Pac-12 CEO Group, which means he’s one of Scott’s bosses. Also, he’s tuned into the issues.

Schill shows up at UO football games. I’ve stood and talked with him in the last couple of seasons on the sideline in places such as Pullman, Washington, and Eugene and even at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, prior to the Oregon-Auburn game last season. He’s often alongside booster Phil Knight in that respect.

On Sunday, during “Senior Day” for the Oregon women’s basketball program, Schill showed up again and shook the hands of the players. He thanked them and congratulated them. It was the same scene last November during the Civil War pregame ceremony to honor Oregon’s seniors. Schill stood on the field, and was among the first to greet and thank every football player playing one last game at Autzen Stadium.

Like Knight, Schill is a big fan. He loves his Ducks. In that, he’s in it with a pile of longtime Oregon fans who have watched the brand of the university swell. Nike is an enormous player and ends up the great equalizer. But the alignment of Mullens and Schill has been like rocket fuel for the programs on campus.

USC’s Bohn has been on the job four months. He’s already making waves. His comments are bound to raise questions in the minds of the conference’s 11 other universities. Also, it has to make Scott, the commissioner, nervous about whether his contract, which is set to expire in 2022, won’t be extended.

USC isn’t the only brand in the conference with potential options. NBC might love to have the Ducks in a Notre Dame-like deal. So might ESPN, which enjoyed a ratings feast on the sweat equity of Sabrina Ionsecu and her teammates this season.

So what’s keeping Oregon from entertaining all offers?

It’s a question Mullens and Schill have to be asking themselves. The Ducks’ brand merits that kind of influence. A deep exploration of the options would be wise. Oregon may compete against the best programs in college football for a national title soon, but if so, it will do so as an outlier.

Oregon is competing at a tremendous financial disadvantage because of enormous media rights distributions that the SEC and Big Ten enjoy. Also, the Ducks are left to create their own exposure, as they’ve become a far bigger and more impressive brand than the Pac-12 itself.

This isn’t about UO leaving the Pac-12. It’s about Oregon being eyes-wide-open and increasing its leverage within the conference. Because if the financials don’t improve in the next cycle, something drastic may have to be done.

One year ago, Mullens told me, “We have to figure out how to close that gap. Resources do matter. We don’t have to have everything that everyone else has, but we have to remain in a range that makes us competitive. And right now, we’re drifting out of range.”

The Ducks might think a little about paddling for themselves.