COLUMBIA — Ray Tanner was asked in February if the fresh college athletics demand on fans to donate to name, image and likeness (NIL) collectives is cutting into donations to traditional booster organizations such as the Gamecock Club.
“The answer is yes, at most places,” Tanner said. “But not as much here.”
That’s because Gamecock Nation enthusiasm, mostly football-driven, rings the bell.
That’s also the nutshell explanation of why a contract extension announced March 17 that pushes Tanner’s salary from $1 million to $1,175,000 per year over the next two years makes sense.
Indeed, Tanner, 64, gets criticized in some fan base circles for major hires that collectively haven’t been stellar. But the business of SEC athletics is football, and the combination of Shane Beamer's winning, fundraising and facility upgrades add up to enough athletic director success to make Tanner a valuable player.
He’s underrated by today’s bottom-line athletic director standards, mostly having to do with the bottom line.
It’s easy to look at the head-coach hiring record since Tanner went from two-time national championship-winning baseball coach to athletic director in August of 2012. Assuming a win for a coach that did well or is doing well, a loss for a fired coach or someone about to get canned and a tie for “too soon to tell,” Tanner is a lackluster 1-2-2 in major hires.
Win: Beamer (football)
Losses: Will Muschamp (football), Chad Holbrook (baseball)
Too soon to tell: Mark Kingston (baseball), Lamont Paris (men’s basketball)
You are who you hire, and had Beamer flopped Tanner likely would have been ousted by now. Holbrook made perfect sense at the time, and was graded on a tough Tanner performance curve.
Kingston is off to a good start in a must-win season.
But Beamer’s upstart Gamecocks, in his second year, beat Kentucky and Texas A&M. They upset Tennessee and Clemson. They played Notre Dame in a bowl game.
South Carolina has impressively kept up with the SEC in facility upgrades, including fan-friendly enhancements established or planned in and around Williams-Brice Stadium.
Cash is flowing in.
Follow the money
You want a fair take on Tanner’s job performance?
Check out these numbers:
Gamecock Club revenue is up $1,079,614 from last year, membership is up by 1,817 and major giving is up by $5,400,000.
“Obviously, football enthusiasm if a factor in the upswing, but I would say that the reorganization we did this past summer in the Gamecock Club has just as much to do with the increase in both revenue and membership,” Gamecock Club CEO Wayne L. Hiott said Wednesday. “Coach Tanner led the charge for us on that.”
Cutting buyout checks adding up to $12.9 million for Muschamp and $3 million for basketball coach Frank Martin isn’t fun. But the price of doing business and addressing attendance losses could have been worse.
A primary SEC voice
It takes a small army to make it all work. If you have a good while to invest some day, check out the number of people employed within a major college athletic department and its official booster organization.
Tanner the all-star schmoozer does a well-respected job earning the trust of trustees and as a delegating skipper who knows what he doesn’t know. That allows for lots of alumni handshakes, team cheerleading and meetings.
So many meetings. In Columbia. Birmingham. Destin.
The little things add up.
Tanner didn’t hire Dawn Staley (predecessor Eric Hyman gets the credit for that bonanza) but he’s been on the job as the Gamecocks have won two national championships (and counting), which is why Staley is happy with this contract extension.
Tanner has gradually become one of the primary voices at SEC meetings. He presides over a community-service oriented athletic department. South Carolina athletes have combined to post a 3.0 grade-point average for 32 consecutive semesters.
Coincidence that this contract extension happened a few weeks after South Carolina completed its first football, basketball and baseball series sweep of Clemson since the 2011-2012 school year? Even better that it cost the Tigers spots in both the College Football Playoff and NCAA Tournament.
A fan base that’s been through some tough times over much of the last decade feels better if not altogether good right now.
Meanwhile, Tanner goes from being the 10th-lowest paid athletic director among the SEC’s 13 public universities (all but Vanderbilt) to No. 9.
Gamecock fans, including those who have called Tanner names after various losses, should call that a bargain.
Follow Gene Sapakoff on Twitter @sapakoff
