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South Carolina set to hire new athletics director

On3 imageby: Chris Clark12/05/24GCChrisClark
Former TCU AD Jeremiah Donati is the new AD at the University of South Carolina (Photo: TCU Athletics)
Former TCU AD Jeremiah Donati is the new AD at the University of South Carolina (Photo: TCU Athletics)

The University of South Carolina is close to hiring TCU’s Jeremiah Donati as the school’s next athletics director, multiple reports indicate.

A Board of Trustees meeting has been set for Thursday afternoon at 3:00 p.m., with the approval of a contract for an athletics director as the agenda item.

GamecockCentral.com shared earlier on Wednesday that Donati was being targeted by USC for the post.

FootballScoop.com, as well as ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, and Brett McMurphy of Action Network have reported that South Carolina is working toward hiring Donati.

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The school has a scheduled Board of Trustees meeting today, but sources tell GamecockCentral.com that the meeting is to address an unrelated contractual matter.

While the timing on finalizing an expected hire of Donati is unclear, the search for Ray Tanner’s replacement is winding down in Columbia.

A former general counsel and director of player representation for Leigh Steinberg Sports and Entertainment, Donati has been in his post as AD at TCU since December 2017. Prior to becoming the school’s athletics director, he served in several prominent roles in the TCU athletics department for over six years.

During his time in Fort Worth, Donati has built up a reputation as a leader who helped facilitate growth for all Horned Frogs sports and Texas Christian University, as a whole. As AD, he oversaw record attendance numbers in multiple sports during the 2023-2024 academic year (including football), and TCU was one of just five programs nationally to win multiple national titles (rifle and men’s tennis).

With Donati at the helm, TCU won eight team national championships and 11 conference titles in the Big 12. The Horned Frogs also made the 4-team College Football Playoff following the 2022-2023 campaign and played in the National Championship Game.

He also understands the political nature of being an athletics director. While in the Big 12, Donati was a big figure in the conference’s Athletics Directors Executive Committee.

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Prior to TCU, Donati’s time as part of Leigh Steinberg Sports and Entertainment gave him experience working with one of the most successful sports and player representation agencies in the world.

Donati earned a B.A. in politics and government in 2001 from the University of Puget Sound where he also played basketball. Following his undergrad days, he graduated with a law degree from Whittier Law School and still holds certification under the California Bar Association.

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