South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tanner will be leaving his role after 12 years in the position, the university announced on Friday.
But Tanner won't be leaving the university. Instead, he will take on a new role as senior advisor to university President Michael Amiridis. Tanner will remain in his position until the university can find a replacement.
Tanner has led the school’s athletics department since August 2012. Before that, he was the head coach of the Gamecock baseball program from 1997-2012, leading the program to six College World Series appearances and back-to-back national championships in 2010 and 2011.
“This is a day that is filled with really great happiness and joy that I have an opportunity to transition, as the President said, into a new role at the university as a senior advisor, as athletic director emeritus,” Tanner told reporters Friday morning. “There was going to be a time much like when I coached baseball … I knew that it was getting close to time in this role as well.”
As the athletics director, Tanner has overseen three national championships in women’s basketball and one in equestrian. He also oversaw the first trips to the NCAA Final Four for both of South Carolina’s basketball programs in 2015 for the women’s program and in 2017 for the men’s program.
“I loved my experience as a baseball coach and as an administrator,” Tanner said in a statement. “I'm grateful to have been able to work here for such a long time. I married a Gamecock and my three children grew up as Gamecocks. My time here is something I have never taken for granted.”
Tanner said he was hesitant to announce the news on Friday given ESPN’s College GameDay in town for Saturday’s matchup against the No. 16 LSU Tigers. But there would not be a perfect time to make the announcement, he said.
“The timing was right for me,” Tanner said. “We felt that it was better to go ahead and get it out … I've always said, more than one person knows something that's not a secret, and the conversation occurring that they're in place at some point, it would be a good day to go ahead and share it with you.
Tanner received a two-year contract extension in March for his role as athletics director. The contract was extended to June 2026. The former coach’s compensation was raised by more than $150,000 to a total of $1.175 million. Tanner will remain under contract in his new role through June 2028.
The athletics director will continue to receive the money agreed upon in the March 2023 contract extension until June 2025, when it will then drop to $987,500 for the following year and again to $800,000 for the remainder of his new contract.
Amiridis said Friday that he will be looking at track record over promise when replacing Tanner.
“Given the conditions that we have in athletics right now, I want somebody who is experienced,” Amiridis said. “I think also, I'm looking for somebody that has the same type of respect in the college athletics community like Ray was, and I’m looking also for somebody that will be as committed to the Gamecock legend as Ray has been over the last number of years.”
A national search for a new athletics director will begin at the end of the fall semester. Tanner will not be directly involved in the hiring process of his successor.