Mizzou AD Desiree Reed-Francois leaving for Arizona

COLUMBIA, Mo. — University of Missouri athletics director Desiree Reed-Francois is leaving to take the same job at the University of Arizona.

It’s a shocking loss for MU, where Reed-Francois helmed the athletics department for less than three years.

Since taking the job in August 2021, she has been widely credited with generating considerable momentum around Mizzou Athletics. Reed-Francois hired coaches like Dennis Gates, Dawn Sullivan and Kerrick Jackson, spearheaded a plan to renovate Memorial Stadium and brought in a record $62 million donation to the athletics department.

But recently, university leadership established an oversight committee to monitor Mizzou Athletics, a possible point of friction between Reed-Francois and upper-level administrators.

She leaves for Arizona, a school migrating from the Pac-12 to Big 12 that is also struggling with its finances. While the shift from a rising Southeastern Conference program to one in need of a rebuild is surprising, Reed-Francois has ties to Tucson, having graduated from Arizona’s law school.

There, her salary will reportedly be $1 million per year with an increase to $1.2 million in the fifth year of her new contract. It’s a pay cut from the $1.25 million she was making under the terms of a contract extension signed with MU.

The university will be due a buyout worth approximately $2.5 million.

Reed-Francois, the first woman to be Mizzou’s athletics director, led the department to a financial surplus and kept it in the black, albeit marginally in the most recent fiscal year.

During her tenure, she fired men’s basketball coach Cuonzo Martin before hiring Gates, who guided the program back to the NCAA Tournament in his first season. The football team, led by Eli Drinkwitz, whose arrival in Columbia predates Reed-Francois, finished its season with a Top 10 ranking and Cotton Bowl win.

Improvements to the fan experience at Memorial Stadium — plus the football team’s success — saw five consecutive sellouts during the 2023 season. As a result, Reed-Francois secured the first stage of approval for a renovation of the stadium’s north concourse.

On Feb. 8, the UM System Board of Curators established the Mizzou Intercollegiate Athletics Special Committee, which is charged with overseeing the athletics department.

“Particularly at this critical moment in the evolution of key programs and with major planned investments in MU Athletics imminent, accountability to the Board and the State through this new committee is more important than ever,” read a Board of Curators document explaining the need for the committee.

Before her hire at Missouri, Reed-Francois was UNLV’s athletics director. Her son, Jackson Francois, is on the MU men’s basketball team.

This story is developing and will be updated.