#Gamecocks reportedly have found their man to replace Ray Tanner as Athletics Director at USC

Pete Thamel of ESPN reported Wednesday afternoon that South Carolina “is working towards hiring” TCU Athletics Director Jeremiah Donati for their new AD to replace the retiring Ray Tanner. This information supports reporting here last week that the Gamecocks had identified their top target and were moving towards an agreement.

Donati would be the second AD from TCU to work at USC. Eric Hyman was the Gamecocks lead man from 2015-2012.

Here’s the TCU bio on Donati:

Jeremiah Donati was appointed as TCU’s Director of Intercollegiate Athletics on December 11, 2017. Previously the Horned Frogs’ Deputy Athletics Director, Donati became the eighth Director of Intercollegiate Athletics in TCU’s history.

Since his arrival at TCU in 2011, Donati has played a major role in enhancing the TCU student-athlete experience through donor-supported facility upgrades totaling nearly $500 million. The most recent project is the $50 million Athletics Human Performance Center Renovation and Expansion projects. Announced in December 2022, the projects began construction in January 2024 with a July 2025 completion date.

During Donati’s tenure as athletics director, the Horned Frogs have won eight team national championships and 11 Big 12 Conference titles.

In the 2023-24 athletics season, TCU was one of just five schools nationally to win multiple NCAA Championships with its titles in rifle and men’s tennis. Sixteen sports were represented in postseason play. Additionally, TCU sent a school record nine current or former student-athletes to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The momentum around TCU was evident in Fall 2023 as football, volleyball and women’s soccer set program attendance records. Coming off its College Football Playoff National Championship appearance, the Horned Frogs were at 102.9 percent of stadium capacity with a school record average attendance of 47,331. The three largest home crowds in TCU football history also took place in the 2023 campaign. Volleyball set a TCU women’s sports record for attendance when 7,412 fans packed Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena for a home match. The total attendance of 29,529 for the year also established a new volleyball program mark. Women’s soccer led the Big 12 with its season attendance at 103.1 percent of capacity while ranking second in the conference and 10th nationally in average crowd at 1,547 per match.

Dating back to Spring 2023, TCU’s two home baseball contests in the NCAA Super Regional it hosted set attendance records for a game played on a college campus in the state of Texas. The new mark of 8,994 fans in the clinching Game 2 saw the Horned Frogs advance to their sixth College World Series since 2010.

The 2022-23 athletics season was the most successful in TCU’s 150 years. TCU became the only school in the College Football Playoff era to reach the CFP, NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and College World Series in the same academic year. Under first-year Head Coach Sonny Dykes, football became the first program from the state of Texas to reach the College Football Playoff and win a CFP game. A victory over Michigan in the CFP Semifinal at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl made TCU the first Big 12 Conference member to play in the CFP National Championship.

Overall, in 2022-23, 10 of TCU’s 21 sports were ranked in the national top 25 with eight in the top 15. Four sports (men’s tennis, equestrian, rifle, beach volleyball) were No. 1 in the nation over the course of the year, while TCU was 25th in the Fall 2022 LEARFIELD Directors’ Cup standings. Nineteen sports were represented in postseason play with six programs (football, beach volleyball, equestrian, rifle, men’s tennis, baseball) in the Final Four or better. Men’s tennis repeated as ITA Indoor National Champions.

Conference championships were won in baseball, rifle, men’s tennis and beach volleyball. Women’s soccer was one of just six programs in the country to reach the Sweet 16 for a third consecutive season, while volleyball joined men’s basketball in advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

For the second straight year, TCU set a school record with six conference coach of the year recipients as Dykes (football), Anthony Crowder (women’s diving), Hector Gutierrez (beach volleyball), Bill Montigel (men’s golf), David Roditi (men’s tennis) and Haley Schoolfield (equestrian) were recognized.

Donati oversees a coaching staff that includes six recipients of National Coach of the Year honors, including 10 by Dykes in 2022. Three head coaches (Jamie Dixon, men’s basketball; Angie Ravaioli-Larkin, women’s golf; Schoolfield, equestrian) have served as presidents of their national coaching organizations.

In addition to Dykes, recent coaching hires by Donati include Mark Campbell (women’s basketball) and Bill Allcorn (men’s golf) in 2023, Jenny Garrison (women’s triathlon) and Khadevis Robinson (track and field) in 2022 as well as Jason Williams (volleyball) and Kirk Saarloos (baseball) in 2021.

Prior to the Athletics Human Performance Center Renovation and Expansion projects, Donati led fundraising efforts for the $113 million Legends Club & Suites which opened in Fall 2020 on the east side of Amon G. Carter Stadium. He was also instrumental in the final stages of fundraising for the $164 million rebuild of the stadium which was completed in 2012.

Other facility projects spearheaded by Donati’s fundraising include the $80 million renovation of Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena, upgrades at Charlie and Marie Lupton Baseball Stadium at Williams-Reilly Field, the Huffman Football Center and the replacement of the Jane Justin Field and improved lighting at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium. There was also a resurfacing of the Sheridan and Clif Morris Football Practice Fields and Moncrief Field at Amon G. Carter Stadium, the football locker room improvements project and a refurbishing of the Schollmaier Basketball Complex.

Additionally, Donati secured a new equestrian facility closer to campus with the program’s move to Bear Creek Farms in Fort Worth. Most recently, the latest named facility is the Young Family Equipment Room. New video boards were also installed for football, soccer and swimming and diving.

In March 2019, Donati worked with TCU football legend, Pro Football Hall of Famer and TCU Board of Trustees member LaDainian Tomlinson to create The Tomlinson Student-Athlete Development Endowment Fund. Benefitting TCU’s Student-Athlete Development Department and the Team America Foundation, the fund supports student-athletes from all of TCU’s sports programs to help prepare them for their lives and careers after graduation. 

Under Donati, TCU has enjoyed record levels of donor support in Frog Club annual giving and overall athletics giving. In the four years he oversaw fundraising in the Frog Club, TCU recorded its three highest totals in overall athletics giving. Additionally, TCU reached record levels in men’s basketball attendance as well as setting new marks in ticket and licensing revenues.

Prior to TCU, Donati was with Leigh Steinberg Sports and Entertainment as general counsel and director of player representation. His extensive experience in professional and intercollegiate athletics includes fundraising positions with the University of Arizona Wildcat Club, Washington State University Cougar Athletic Fund and the Cal Poly University Mustang Club.

Donati earned a B.A. in politics and government in 2001 from the University of Puget Sound, where he was a basketball student-athlete. He received a Juris Doctorate from Whittier Law School in 2005 and is a member of the California Bar Association. He is also a member of the Big 12 Conference’s Athletics Directors Executive Committee and Football Working Group, Learfield’s AD Advisory Board, the Board of Trustees for the Davey O’Brien Foundation in Fort Worth and the Coalition Academy in conjunction with the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches.

Donati and his wife, Nicole, live in Fort Worth and have two daughters: Colette and Naomi.