Michael Lev: New Arizona AD Desireé Reed-Francois is taking over a department on the rise

When the position of director of athletics unexpectedly came open at the University of Arizona, this was a common refrain:

Who would want that job?

I’ll admit, I felt the same way. An athletic director’s responsibilities are more consuming than ever, the challenges more daunting than ever, the headaches more splitting than ever.

Additionally, in the specific case of Arizona, the new AD would be inheriting an “A” Mountain of debt.

But with the passage of time, the resolution of a critical matter and the procurement of an administrator who just might be the perfect person for the UA’s particular predicament, the outlook has changed:

Who wouldn’t want that job?

Desireé Reed-Francois, who was introduced as Arizona’s athletic director Tuesday, isn’t grabbing the wheel of the Titanic after it struck the iceberg. The UA athletic department — on the fields and courts of play at least — is actually sailing along strongly and steadily.

Reed-Francois isn’t inheriting a mess. A deficit? Yeah. The job will require some number crunching, belt tightening and personnel shuffling. Some people, unfortunately, will lose their jobs in the process.

But even before she starts, we can point to some numbers that portend success: 4 and 11.

The UA men’s basketball team holds the No. 4 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 entering Thursday’s showdown with No. 21 Washington State. Tommy Lloyd’s club has a legitimate chance to return to the Final Four for the second time since Lute Olson and the Wildcats won it all in 1997 — an occasion Reed-Francois, a UA law student in the ’90s, referenced repeatedly Tuesday.

The Arizona football team finished the ’23-24 campaign at No. 11 in the AP poll, the Wildcats’ highest season-ending ranking since 1998. Although bitterness lingers over Jedd Fisch’s abrupt departure, you can’t deny he left the program in a much better state. Brent Brennan took the baton without having to make up the stagger.

For the most part, athletic directors are judged by how the football and men’s basketball programs perform. There’s more to it than that, of course. Reed-Francois is being asked, as UA president Robert C. Robbins put it, to “modernize” Arizona’s athletic department while also being “fiscally responsible” and not compromising “in our pursuit of excellence.”

But as long as football and men’s basketball keep winning — and Reed-Francois can move the athletic department out of the red and into the black, a seemingly Herculean task she managed to pull off at Missouri — her tenure will be viewed as a success.

Assuming they all get along, Reed-Francois also doesn’t have to worry about Brennan or Lloyd leaving for the next-best opportunity that comes along. Her predecessor, Dave Heeke, facilitated the Brennan hire in short order. If all goes well, Dick Tomey’s protégé could retire here.

Meanwhile, the UA locked up Lloyd with a lucrative contract extension Monday, the same day Reed-Francois’ hiring was announced. There’s no way that was just a coincidence. That was Robbins doing his best Jerry Jones impression to get all the stars aligned.

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After painting the athletic department as a primary money-draining cause of the university’s overall financial woes in front of faculty — basically telling them what they wanted to hear — Robbins reverted to form Tuesday. He’s a lifelong sports fan and an advocate of athletics.

In addition to acknowledging the stability of the football and men’s basketball programs, Robbins shouted out women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes, one of many coaches to attend Reed-Francois’ introductory news conference. UA women’s basketball is in a bit of a weird spot as Barnes wrestles with the new realities of NIL and the transfer portal. She’s also the only coach to have led Arizona to a Final Four and is riding a streak of five straight seasons with 20 or more victories.

Robbins summed up the overall health of the department as follows:

“With new department leadership now in place, our head men’s basketball coach secured long term and Coach Brennan, our new football coach, primed to continue our upward trajectory on the gridiron — and Coach Barnes, who’s here, who was that far away from the national championship, taking down Stanford — we are set for leadership stability and momentum to continue to thrive.”

In her last job, at Mizzou, Reed-Francois inherited football and basketball programs that were middling at best. The Tigers football team had a succession of around-.500 records before last season’s 11-2 breakout under Eli Drinkwitz. Missouri men’s basketball has been up and down — and is currently way down after a 25-win, NCAA Tournament season in 2022-23. Mizzou women’s basketball hasn’t made the tournament since 2019.

Missouri ranked 50th in the final 2022-23 Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, which factor in every sport a university sponsors. Arizona came in 43rd. Post-realignment, which of the two has a higher upside? It’s clearly the UA, which is joining a Big 12 Conference that’s losing perennial powers Oklahoma and Texas ... to the SEC.

UNLV’s biggest programs were in sorry shape when Reed-Francois became that school’s athletic director — and the first woman of color to lead an athletic department at the FBS level — in 2017. From ’01 to ’16, the Rebels football team had one winning season. The men’s basketball team hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2013. The women hadn’t made it since 2002 until Lindy La Rocque, whom Reed-Francois hired, turned the program around in 2020.

Taking over the UNLV athletic department then was like becoming the head coach of the Carolina Panthers. They were the worst team in the NFL last season, don’t have the No. 1 overall pick to show for it and might’ve taken the wrong quarterback last year.

Taking over the UA athletic department now is like becoming the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. Sure, they have some salary-cap issues. But they also have Justin Herbert.

Jim Harbaugh is no dummy. Neither is Reed-Francois. Already-thriving football and men’s basketball programs are the equivalent of a franchise QB.

Reed-Francois also inherits baseball and softball programs that are, in my opinion, on the upswing. Men’s golf and men’s tennis are both ranked in the top 10. Women’s triathlon finished fifth nationally in its inaugural season.

Reed-Francois knew what she was getting herself into. She wanted to be here. She knew she’d face challenges on the financial front. But she also knew she was coming to a place that has won big and can again.

“I remember how I felt when I heard ‘One Shining Moment’ and we saw Coach Olson cut down that net,” Reed-Francois said. “We’re gonna raise banners here. We’re gonna cut down more nets, folks.

“As we move forward, my vision is to build upon this storied history and work tirelessly toward a championship future.”

It isn’t difficult to see.