Analyst Reveals Possible Reasons Why AD Desiree Reed-Francois Left Missouri For Arizona

During a recent episode of the College Football Gameday Podcost, host Rece Davis spoke with Pete Thamel about Desiree Reed-Francois' sudden move to leave her athletic director position at Missouri for the one at Arizona. Per On3:

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When looking at why Reed-Francois left Missouri, Thamel laid out a few possible reasons. For starters, Missouri voted to create the “Mizzou Intercollegiate Athletics Special Committee” to effectively oversee the athletics department.

Add in the amount of turnover in the department over the last six years, and Thamel said that likely played a role in Reed-Francois’ decision.

“I think it’s two-fold, Rece,” Thamel said. “I think one is the board of curators at Missouri basically created a four-person panel – I forget the specific administrative jargon. Earlier in February, basically, a four-person board oversight committee over the athletic department at Missouri. That clearly played some type of role. … Since Mike Alden left there, Rece, Missouri had Mack Rhoades jump to Baylor after about a year – there were some extenuating circumstances there. Jim Sterk got fired, and it was a pretty underwhelming tenure. He did hire Eli Drinkwitz. And then, Desiree Reed-Francois leaves after three years.

“So at a certain point, when you see the trend lines like that, you say, maybe the problem isn’t with the ADs. Maybe the problem is with the structure and how it’s run there.”

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