Twenty months ago, DesireΓ© Reed-Francois was the rookie among the otherwise all-male 15 Big 12 athletic directors. In short order, she is no longer anything like a rookie. Six Big 12 AD jobs have changed since Reed-Francois was the so-called rookie (which didn't fit anyway since she had been the AD at Missouri and UNLV for seven years prior to moving to Tucson.)
Last week, Baylor hired Doug McNamee as its AD; he had been publisher of Field and Stream magazine, of all things. Earlier BYU replaced retiring Tommy Holmoe with Brian Santiago, an assistant AD, and ASU hired Graham Rossini from within, replacing Ray Anderson. Houston filled its AD job by hiring ex-New Mexico AD Eddie NuΓ±ez, and TCU hired Army AD Mike Buddie to replace ex-Arizona assistant AD Jeremiah Donati, now the AD at South Carolina.
The new vacancy in the Big 12 is at Colorado. Rick George, who had been AD for 12 years at CU, is shifting to an advisor's role in the CU president's office, George had been the second-longest-serving AD in the Big 12, behind Iowa State's Jamie Pollard, who has been with the Cyclones since 2005. George's resume at Colorado wasn't exactly sparkling. He hired failed football coaches Mike MacIntyre, Mel Tucker and Karl Dorrell. The once-lauded hire of Deion Sanders is now being criticized; Sanders has gone 16-21 at Colorado.
Arizona athletic director DesireΓ© Reed-Francois is all smiles as she begins a press conference on the renaming of the University of Arizona football's venue to Casino Del Sol Stadium on Nov. 17, 2025.Β
In terms of service as a Division I AD, Reed-Francois ranks fourth in the Big 12 behind just Pollard, Texas Tech's Kirby Hocutt and Utah's Mark Harlan, an Arizona alumnus. Reed-Francois is just 52. She has changed the culture and financial direction of the UA athletic department in just 20 months. In the poaching season of college football coaches, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if some Power 4 titan looking for an AD put its spotlight on Reed-Francois.
