Jeremiah Donati’s Top Two Priorities as South Carolina’s New AD

Jeremiah Donati officially started his tenure as South Carolina’s athletic director on Thursday, stepping into a promising role during a challenging period.

After spending 13 years at Texas Christian University (TCU), including the last seven as athletic director, Donati accepted an offer to move his wife and two daughters across the country to a state where he had no prior experience working.

“We would have been happy there for a long, long time,” Donati shared. “It really was going to take what we felt like was the perfect situation to move our family.”

The “perfect situation” was a position in the SEC, offering a $1.9 million contract—$600,000 more than his salary at TCU. It’s a role where his predecessor, Ray Tanner, stepped down with respect, and there are no scandals or vacant coaching spots to fill.

South Carolina is a place where no head coach for the four major programs—football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and baseball—is under pressure. All four of these teams are coming off postseason appearances. The women’s basketball program, led by Coach Dawn Staley, continues to thrive, while football, South Carolina’s most lucrative program, is showing growth under young, dynamic head coach Shane Beamer.

Additionally, the school is guided by President Michael Amiridis, who places great importance on athletics. Amiridis, during the interview process, asked Donati, “Can we raise our profile, our brand and win football games?” Donati explained to The State, “Competing in the SEC at the highest level was important (to him).”

Of course, that optimistic outlook can shift unexpectedly. Donati is all too familiar with that reality. When he took over at TCU in 2017, things seemed ideal at first, but within months, a former football player filed a medical negligence lawsuit, and Donati had to fire the head swimming and diving coach due to serious allegations.

“I’m hoping it’s a little smoother than that,” Donati remarked last week. “But I also understand in the world of college athletics, there’s no guarantees.”

Thus, while Donati has landed in what appears to be an ideal situation, he is stepping into a complex and unpredictable environment.

The NCAA is facing a wave of lawsuits, and revenue sharing, as a result of the House v. NCAA settlement, will soon begin. With NIL deals reshaping the landscape, fans are helping fund rosters, while the transfer portal continues to introduce chaos every December. Meanwhile, eligibility rules are shifting so quickly that players, like South Carolina linebacker Bam Martin-Scott, aren’t sure if they’ve played their final college game.

In the weeks before officially taking the South Carolina job, Donati worked to familiarize himself with the department. He said in his introductory press conference that the first few months would be focused on listening and learning, and he has followed through on that.

“The team has done a tremendous job in the transition to kind of arm me with a lot of factual information about the departments and how the athletic department is set up, and so I know a lot going in,” Donati noted.

From what he has learned so far, there are several key areas that need immediate attention.

1. The House Settlement
   The $20.5 million salary cap will soon take effect, but it remains unclear how that money will be divided among athletes. Donati acknowledged that SEC presidents are deliberating whether to implement a conference-wide solution or allow each school to determine how the funds are distributed. While the Big 12 left the decision to individual schools, Donati said that TCU had already finalized its plan, which could give him an advantage if the SEC follows suit.

“I know, directionally, more or less how this is going to shake out,” Donati said. “But we don’t have it exactly finalized.”

CBS Sports reported that an informal survey of the industry suggests most schools will use a 75-15-5-5 formula for the distribution, allocating 75% of the money to football, 15% to men’s basketball, 5% to women’s basketball, and 5% to other sports.

2. The Williams-Brice Stadium Renovation
   In October, South Carolina announced significant plans to upgrade its football stadium, with Phase 1 set to begin after the 2025 season. Further phases will focus on adding more suites to Williams-Brice, which is far behind other SEC stadiums. While much of this has been in the works for a while, Donati will be responsible for leading fundraising efforts, managing logistics, and making key decisions.

“We have kind of a tight timeline there,” Donati explained. “We really need to understand the next steps, figuring out who’s going to be the architect, and getting this thing designed and start putting a plan around it.”

These are just two of Donati’s immediate priorities. He is also considering longer-term issues, such as what to do with the 800 acres of land surrounding Williams-Brice and how to develop land on floodplains. He will also need to negotiate two major deals in the coming years: South Carolina’s multimedia rights agreement with Learfield, which expires in 2026, and its apparel contract with Under Armour, also ending in June 2026.

Donati is tasked with balancing the need to make critical decisions in the present while ensuring that those choices align with the department’s long-term vision. This aligns with the qualities Amiridis sought in his search for an athletic director.

“He was concerned about: How do you manage change?” Donati said. “And how are you gonna prepare us for the future?”

“We want to make sure that we’re built for the next five to 10 years,” Donati added. “This is not a fixer-upper, but there’s areas where we can probably make some adjustments.”