Jeremiah Donati

Jeremiah Donati was named the University of South Carolina’s 31st Director of Athletics on Dec. 5, 2024. He officially began his duties on Jan. 2, 2025, bringing a wealth of experience in navigating an ever-changing collegiate sports landscape to Columbia.

Donati quickly enjoyed success with the Gamecocks, as the women’s basketball squad was the SEC champion and national runners-up, while the women’s golf and equestrian teams also won SEC titles, the softball team advanced to the Super Regionals and women’s outdoor track & field placed seventh in the nation in just his first six months on campus.

Donati came to South Carolina after serving as the Athletics Director at TCU since July 2017, where he led the Horned Frogs’ athletics program to new heights including eight team national championships and 11 Big 12 Conference titles. In addition to TCU being the first Texas team to appear in the College Football Playoffs, TCU’s men’s basketball program has appeared in the last three NCAA Tournaments while its baseball team won back-to-back Big 12 championships and made one appearance in the College World Series.

In the 2023-24 athletics season, TCU was one of only five schools nationally to win multiple NCAA Championships. In the previous 2022-23 season, TCU became the first 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 football coach Sonny Dykes, the Horned Frogs reached the College Football Playoff in 2022, defeating Michigan in the CFP semifinals of the Fiesta Bowl and played Georgia in the national championship game.

That same season, TCU set a school record with six conference coach of the year recipients:  football, women’s diving, beach volleyball, men’s golf, men’s tennis and equestrian.

Donati arrived at TCU in 2011 as Deputy Athletics Director, playing a major role in fundraising and project development before being named AD. His efforts enhanced the TCU student-athlete experience through significant facility upgrades totaling nearly $500 million. The most recent project is a $50 million renovation and expansion to TCU’s Athletics Human Performance Center.

Under Donati, TCU also has enjoyed record levels of donor support for its athletics program. 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.

In March 2019, Donati worked with TCU football legend LaDainian Tomlinson to create the Tomlinson Student-Athlete Development Endowment Fund to help prepare student-athletes from all of TCU’s sports programs for their lives and careers after graduation.

Prior to joining TCU, Donati was with Leigh Steinberg Sports and Entertainment as general counsel and director of player representation. He has 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 bachelor’s degree 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. 

While at TCU, he was 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, have two daughters: Colette and Naomi.