TCU Athletic Director Talks NIL Donor Fatigue

Horned Frogs' AD Jeremiah Donati is leaning toward taking NIL experience in-house

TCU Horned Frogs athletic director Jeremiah Donati has a lot on his mind these days.

His football program is working to bounce back from a sub-.500 season in 2023, one year after reaching the College Football Playoff championship game. The men’s basketball team is pointed toward another NCAA Tournament berth, while the women’s team is trying to sneak into the postseason after forfeiting two games in January.

As for the baseball team, which won the Big 12 Tournament last year? The Horned Frogs are one of the highest-ranked teams in the country.

Donati took over the athletic department at TCU in late 2017 when Chris Del Conte took over the athletic department at Texas. At the time, Donati was Del Conte’s deputy and his reputation was wrapped up in fund-raising and facilities improvements. During his tenure the Horned Frogs have won six team national championships and 11 Big 12 Conference titles.

One would have to believe with the program’s overall level of success, its location in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and a well-heeled alumni base that funding Name, Image and Likeness efforts would be a relative breeze for Donati.

Well, the collectives that are supporting TCU — including the Flying T Club — have done a great job, according to Donati. But, in a recent Q&A with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, he noted that his program, along with other major athletic programs, are running into a problem they probably didn’t anticipate when NIL first started.

Donor fatigue. It’s a real thing, according to Donati.

“… the NIL piece is concerning, the sustainability of it,” Donati said. “I think we’re seeing a lot of collectives around the country and NIL supporters are starting to run out of gas.

“Hey this was really popular when it first came out and now the same people that want to support it are saying how much longer do you need me to do this? This is not how I envisioned supporting the university … I’m seeing a lot of headlines about ‘Help, this isn’t sustainable.’ I’m talking about from the big boy schools, not Group of Five schools.”

It’s led Donati to the conclusion that it’s time for the NIL experience to come under the banner of the university and not managed by collectives, as much as he respects the work done by the ones that support TCU athletics.

“I’ve changed my tune on this, I would prefer it’s in-house,” Donati said. “I would prefer to control it, for it to be on the ground level. We’ve got tremendous fundraisers here, I prefer they’re the ones running it. Id’ like to give them university credit for supporting it. I’d like to give them priority points, we can get a little more creative with it if we had total control of it. I think our collective does a really good job and I commend them for doing what they’re doing, but if I could, that would be one more I would make tomorrow.”