Q&A with South Carolina AD Ray Tanner
Ray Tanner presides over one of 28 athletic departments that generated more than $100 million in revenue in fiscal year 2014-2015. In April, he watched his women’s basketball team reach the Final Four. In December, he hired a football coach.
Last week, Tanner sat down with The State to discuss what he liked about 2015, what he’s looking forward to in 2016 and what he views as the most important issue facing college athletics in the future.
What was the highlight of South Carolina athletics 2015 for you?
“I think we continue to grow. Our revenues are growing, our support is great, our brand in the Southeastern Conference and nationally is strong. I think that as we move forward one of the things that is important to me is to put student-athletes into a position where they continue to achieve academically and also have an opportunity to go to the postseason. Both our soccer teams went to the postseason and you go back to the spring and Coach (Dawn) Staley being in the Final Four, and as we sit here today we’re the only school in the country where the men and women are undefeated. The work that Coach (Frank) Martin has done. He’s continued to put the building blocks in place for a successful program. We continue to grow and that’s important. It is important to provide resources, whether it’s facilities or financial assistance in the lives of our student-athletes.”
What is the top item of your agenda for 2016?
“I look at this position as it is my responsibility to continue to provide resources for our student athletes and put them in position to be successful. While academics is the No. 1 priority, also athletically. We are building new locker rooms for men’s and women’s soccer, a new track and just got first approval on a $50 million football operations building. Hopefully in 2016, we will complete the state process so we can maybe come close to getting in position by the end of ’16 or early ’17 to start construction. There will be other things. We have 21 sports here, I’d like to one day sit down and say, ‘We had 18 sports get to the postseason.’ We are around the 10 or 11 range now and that’s good but I’d like to be in position where all of our sports have the opportunity to go to the postseason. Is it more important than coming here and getting a degree? No, but I would like for it to be a part of the experience.”
Is there a topic you think college administrators need to be aware of moving forward?
“I do think as we move forward that the television model, what does that do to our fan base, the ticket buying fan base? I think we are very fortunate that we have the fan base that we do, we don’t compete with professional sports here, and our donors and fan base are passionate and they support our programs. Fiscal management is critical, that we bring in money. We are very fortunate to be in the position that we are in.”
Will Steve Spurrier become an ambassador at South Carolina?
“We have talked about it and he said we’d talk about it another time. I’ve offered him an opportunity to have an office here in the Rice building should he want to do that. He’s taking some time now to decide what he wants to do.”
This story was originally published December 27, 2015 at 4:18 PM with the headline "Q&A with South Carolina AD Ray Tanner."