College sports in 2026 won't bear much resemblance to college sports in 2016. For better or worse, a decade of change unlike any other in NCAA history can be described as worse, not better.
In 2016, Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne told me he knew the names and faces of all 500 Wildcat athletes. Now the names and faces change so often that even Byrne, now at Alabama, surely walks among strangers in his own athletic department.
Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois told me that about 75% of an AD's time used to be spent on competition, wins and losses, and about 25% on "other stuff." That has been reversed. Now it's 75% on finances and 25% on competition and "other stuff."
For example, when Colorado hired athletic director Fernando Lovo from the New Mexico Lobos last week, it announced his contract would pay a $200,000 bonus if he raised $25 million a year and $250,000 if he raised $35 million a year. How times change. A decade or two ago, an AD got bonuses for championships, academic performance and finishing in the Top 25 of the Learfield Cup standings, which reflects a school's overall success in wins and losses.
Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois talks about Becky Burke, new coach of the women’s basketball team, during a press conference at McKale Center on April 11, 2025.
By my count, the UA's fundraising department (development) now has 14 full-time employees with another eight in marketing/fan engagement. That's 22 people. In 2016, Byrne had 11 people in those roles.
Reed-Francois has hired fund-raisers and marketers from all over the country: Creighton, Texas A&M, Tennessee, LSU, Missouri, you name it. Reed-Francois has made the Wildcat athletic department competitive with Big 12 rivals in fund-raising, which has become Job 1. Here's how critical that is:
Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks last week told the Atlanta Constitution: "I love working with staff and student-athletes, and having an impact on their lives. But now you have to spend more time on the legalities of college sports, and how you're going to be creative to fund-raise, because that is paramount."
For the last 25 years, Arizona had three well-known fundraisers who produced at the highest level: Tom Sanders, Judy Kessler and Scott Shake. They were pillars of the athletic department. But Sanders died, Kessler retired and Shake, who began in 1989, is a lone survivor. If Shake ever writes a book about the life of a fundraiser in college sports, I'll be the first to buy it. Can you imagine the stories he could tell about the changes in college sports over the last 36 years?
