Reed-Francois vows to bring innovation to Mizzou
When former Missouri athletics director Jim Sterk announced on July 26 that he would step down from his post, questions arose about whether the choice had been Sterk’s or if his hand had been forced by university leadership. The news that Missouri would pay the full remainder of Sterk’s salary, nearly $1.5 million for the two years left on his contract, suggested the latter.
Wednesday, speaking to reporters to introduce Sterk’s replacement, Desiree Reed-Francois, UM System President Mun Choi removed any doubt. Asked about the change in leadership, Choi thanked Sterk for being a “man of integrity,” but said he and the Board of Curators wanted to move in a “different direction.”
“Looking 10 years out into the future, I knew and the board knew that we needed a different direction,” Choi said. “And it’s that innovation, innovation that we need given the changing dynamics, and the fact that, for us to develop into champions, we have to work harder than Alabama. We have to work harder than Florida. And so, are we going to bring that culture to where that high level of expectation starts from the top? And that’s the reason that we made the decision.”
During Reed-Francois’ introductory press conference, Choi repeatedly expressed his belief that she can provide that innovation. He challenged the former UNLV AD to transform Missouri “from good to becoming champions, the very best.” Doing so, he said, will take some “deep but necessary changes.”
In her first public comments since accepting the job, Reed-Francois offered a glimpse of what those changes could look like. She vowed to live up to both Choi’s challenge and the state’s “Show Me” slogan.
“We’re going to be innovative, and we’re going to be team-oriented,” Reed-Francois said. “We’re going to serve one another. And I believe, how I was raised, my mom would tell me, don’t just say it. Go do it. And we’re going to expect to win, but we’re not going to pound our chests and be loud-mouths about that. We’re going to let our work show it.”
After Missouri parted ways with Sterk, Choi said he polled roughly 100 people — a cross-section of the athletics department that included curators, coaches, student-athletes and donors — about what they wanted to see in a new leader of the department. The feedback, he said, was consistent: someone who is visionary, innovative, compassionate, fearless.
With those characteristics in mind, a nine-person search committee, led by Curator Jeff Layman, went to work identifying candidates. (Choi was not on the committee but was heavily involved in the process.) According to Choi, the committee started with a list of about 30 names, then quickly focused on seven or eight. They trimmed that list to four candidates before interviewing two of them in St. Louis last weekend.
Choi said the original plan was for the search to last four weeks, but Reed-Francois was so impressive in her interview that, around 1:30 p.m. Sunday, the committee offered her the job.
“(Layman) called me and he said, Darryl, we have found the person,” said Board of Curators chair Darryl Chatman. “She’s excellent, she’s phenomenal, she’s energetic and going to be a great fit for this role. So as soon as he interviewed her...he said, there’s no doubt in his mind that he had made the right decision and found the right person.”
Speaking Wednesday in front of a crowd that included former Missouri athletics director Mike Alden, former football coach Gary Pinkel and current coaches Cuonzo Martin, Robin Pingeton, Brett Halter and Larissa Anderson, Reed-Francois began to detail the vision that had wowed the committee. She struck a balance between confidence, saying she expects Missouri’s teams to compete for SEC and national championships, and modesty, admitting she has “a lot of listening to do” before she implements specific changes. She reeled off an impressive list of names when speaking about her mentors, as well as what she learned from each. Former Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt taught her the importance of alignment; former Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer exemplified treating people right; longtime Maryland and NC State AD Debbie Yow showed her how to make everything measurable; former San Francisco 49ers head coach Bill Walsh hammered home attention to detail.
A few themes emerged about how Reed-Francois wants her department to look. She repeatedly brought up work ethic, saying she wants Missouri to be known as the hardest-working department in the SEC, and that will start with her. She also reiterated the importance of listening, saying her first step as athletics director will be speaking with coaches, athletes and fans about what needs to be changed. She got a head start on that before being introduced, meeting with members of the football team and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Right off the top, I met with all the departments, with the whole staff this morning, and we're going to do a SWOT analysis,” Reed-Francois said. “I want to hear directly from the folks here, and then we're going to take that and we're going to start defining us. We're going to start defining, really, our brand, who we are, make sure that we're all on the same page.”
One specific area about which Reed-Francois wants to gather feedback is fans’ game day experience. Missouri has lagged behind most of its SEC peers in ticket sales in recent seasons, and closing that gap will be paramount for the department to compete in the conference. Reed-Francois said season-ticket holders should prepare to be “incredibly surveyed.”
“I want to find out about their game day experience,” she said. “But not just the game day experience in the stadium. I want it to be from everything from, when they’re about to buy tickets, is it easy? I want to push the easy button on things. Is it easy to get to the stadium? Is parking easy? Are game attendants greeting them in the right way? Are they having an incredible experience?
“We’re competing for people’s time. And we gotta make sure that we’re creating an event where people fear missing out. Like, I want to make sure … that you never want to miss a Mizzou game.”
Choi believes Reed-Francois can boost Missouri’s ticket sales revenue not just by attracting more fans to football and basketball games, but by finding creative ways to use Missouri’s facilities during the offseason. That was one unique characteristic that attracted university leadership to her. At UNLV, Choi said, Reed-Francois managed an $85 million budget, but only about $50 million of that went toward athletics. She used the remainder to hold concerts and other events at UNLV’s facilities.
“She was able to really integrate what she learned and what the best practices are on the entertainment side with athletics, and vice versa,” Choi said. “That’s key for us. I want to see our stadiums filled on Saturdays, but also, when it’s not being used for football, let’s use it for concerts. Let’s have rodeos there, if the turf can handle it. Something innovative.”
Another area in which Missouri will look for Reed-Francois to bring a fresh approach will be name, image and likeness. The NCAA updated its bylaws Aug. 1 to allow student-athletes to profit from endorsements while maintaining their eligibility. That has sparked a race among high-major schools to find unique ways their student-athletes can cash in, because that makes it easier to attract prospective athletes.
Given her degree in sports law, Reed-Francois believes she’s well-positioned to set Missouri apart in the NIL landscape. Even though her contract hasn’t officially started, she already has some ideas, although she didn’t reveal specifics Wednesday.
“In terms of name, image and likeness, with the background that I have and the training that I have, we've been able to just really look at a way that we can competitively use this to our advantage,” Reed-Francois said. “And so I'm looking forward to learning about the program here at Mizzou and seeing how we can take that foundation and continue to make that an advantage for us.”
One specific benchmark that Reed-Francois set Wednesday was finishing in the top 25 percent of the standings for the Learfield IMG Directors’ Cup, which ranks the most successful athletics departments in the country every year. (Reed-Francois didn’t specify whether she meant the top quartile of all Division I schools, FBS members or schools from Power Five conferences; Missouri finished No. 48 out of 289 Division I members in 2020-21.) But both she and Choi weren’t afraid to spell out loftier aspirations.
“The word great is just bandied about all the time,” Choi said. “Who measures greatness? Is there an organization that measures greatness, and are their standards aligned? The champions, there’s no denying who’s a champion. At the end of the year, there’s only one champion standing, and that’s where we want to be.”
Choi acknowledged that Missouri has some work to do to get to that point, and it will take time. That’s why he and the rest of the university leadership paid Sterk $1.5 million to step down, and why he prioritized innovation in the search for a new AD. Hiring Reed-Francois was just the start of the changes to Missouri’s athletics department, he said. But he believes she’s the right leader to elevate the school in the college sports pecking order.
“Business as usual goes out the window with our new athletics director,” said Choi. “She’s going to bring that culture of winning back to Mizzou.”
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