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University of South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner – who has spent an uneven twelve years at the helm of the Gamecocks’ sports programs – is stepping down from his post in the near future, according to multiple media reports.
News of Tanner’s decision to resign was first reported on Friday (September 13, 2024) by David Cloninger of The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier. Follow-up reporting from The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper referenced a statement from Tanner confirming the news.
“For a while now, I have thought there’s going to come a time for Carolina to get a new athletics director, and the president and I have had those conversations,” Tanner said in the statement. “There was interest for me to remain at the university. I agreed to stay in a new role because of my passion for this university, this city and this state.”
Of interest? Tanner’s resignation announcement came less than one day after Jordan Kaye of The State reported that a former Gamecock athletics official “committed serious violations of NCAA legislation” during his three-and-a-half years as director of player personnel. That official, Taylor Edwards, left the program in July of this year.
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A nationwide search for a new athletics director will begin in December, with Tanner remaining at his current post until a replacement is found. At that point, the 66-year-old Smithfield, North Carolina native will shift to a new position within the University’s administration, school officials confirmed.
Specifically, Tanner will become “athletics director emeritus and senior advisor to the president, focusing on fundraising and community engagement,” per the school. He will be paid a whopping $3.7 million over four years in his new capacity, the university said Friday.
Tanner’s tenure as athletics director – which began on July 13, 2012 – has seen only a handful of highs, most notably three national championships won by the school’s women’s basketball program under head coach Dawn Staley. The men’s program also made a Final Four appearance in 2017 under former coach Frank Martin, but sank back into mediocrity shortly thereafter.
Thankfully, that program appears to be back on track with new head coach Lamont Paris – although it has yet to win an NCAA tournament game since its deep run seven years ago.
Speaking of mediocrity, Tanner has presided over the collapse of South Carolina’s biggest draw – its football program. After winning a school-record 11 games three seasons running, the Gamecocks fell apart after Steve Spurrier left in 2015 – with Tanner’s first choice to replace the legendary signal caller turning into an unmitigated disaster.
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RELATED | UTTER INCOMPETENCE
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His second hire, Shane Beamer, is off to a hot start this year but is also coming off a disappointing season – and the jury is still out as to whether he is the long-term answer for this program. So far, Beamer has intermittently silenced critics of his hiring – but has yet to consistently prove them wrong.
Tanner has also presided over the collapse of the baseball program – the same program he coached to back-to-back national titles in 2010 and 2011. His first and second choices to run that program have both tanked, prompting Tanner to tap former LSU head coach Paul Mainieri earlier this year.
My news outlet has been harshly critical of Tanner over the years, referring to him just last month as “consistently underwhelming.” While I believe South Carolina athletics will be better off without him, I certainly wish him nothing but the best as he moves into a new role at the school.
This is a developing story… please check back for updates.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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4 comments
Oh Lawd – this is going to be fun.
Dude needs to go back to coaching or just retire. I get it, this was his dream or whatever, but it didn’t work out. No shame in calling it quits when you know you are outside of your wheelhouse, should’ve done it sooner is all.
The average professor at the University makes $99,800 a year. Why in the world do you have to pay a retiring, mediocre AD $925,000 a year for four years for a superfluous position that was obviously created just for him. Will the funds for his salary come out of the athletic department budget or the University’s general fund?
I agree with your comments on AD’s and how they are paid, but you are wrong about average USC professor pay. The number you are citing is one that is diluted by the number of adjunct, part-time, and non-tenured professors. The full- time tenured professors, especially the non-fine arts ones, consistently make over 200k from just the university alone, and that doesn’t count all of the extra compensation they are allowed to receive from federal and state research grants, royalties from patents (derived from state-funded labs and projects), nonprofit grants, publishing and speaking fees, etc. When you add that all up, there are ALOT of USC professors hauling in a 300k+ total compensation package. They are very careful to obfuscate that information – there are legislators and statewide elected officials who have attempted to get the “full picture” information and it took enduring 2-3 years of foot-dragging by the colleges and universities to obtain it.