Pete Thamel reveals possible reasons why Desiree Reed-Francois left Missouri for Arizona

Desiree Reed-Francois surprised many when she decided to leave Missouri for Arizona earlier this week. She spent three years in Columbia as the Tigers’ athletics director, but is now heading to her law school alma mater as part of a big shakeup in Tucson.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel said he heard from people around college sports who didn’t see Reed-Francois’ move coming.

“For Arizona, Desiree Reed-Francois leaves Missouri and heads to Tucson – and it was a bit of a ‘wow’ in the industry,” Thamel told Rece Davis on the ESPN College GameDay Podcast. “Got a lot of calls and texts last night, this morning, too, just people curious about the reasoning.”

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.”

Pete Thamel: Desiree Reed-Francois will have the opportunity to build Arizona back

Desiree Reed-Francois is walking into a tough situation at Arizona. University president Robert C. Robbins announced a $240 million budget shortfall in November, and it resulted in an athletics hiring freeze.

Thamel pointed out those financial troubles, but Reed-Francois also has the opportunity to build Arizona from the ground up as the Wildcats make the move to the Big 12. It’s also a chance for the university to get a fresh perspective on its situation.

“Look, at Arizona, it is a financial disaster right now,” Thamel said. “But if you want to come in for a fresh start and build, it’s a great opportunity, right? It’s at rock bottom. I really feel like if you don’t feel welcome where you are, you go to somewhere where they’re going to welcome you with open arms and let you build it back. And Bobby Robbins, the president at Arizona, is a very involved guy. He ran the search himself, which is very rare for a college president. He needed a win in this AD search. He’s under fire, the school is $177 million in debt. The athletic department, depending on estimates, has been borrowing a lot of money. I think the figure’s over $80 million in the last five, six years.

“Arizona as an institution, Arizona as an athletic department, need a course correction. And Bobby Robbins needed someone to come in who’s a veteran hand, and Desiree was at UNLV and Missouri for seven years as a head AD and she’d been at Tennessee, Cincinnati, Virginia Tech. He, especially because he was running the search himself, really needed to go find a capable, experienced AD to go turn things around at Arizona.”

Beyond the financial side, though, Arizona is in strong position on the field and the court. The football team is coming off a 10-3 season and held on to quarterback Noah Fifita and wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan after Jedd Fisch left for Washington. On the basketball side, Tommy Lloyd just got a big extension amid another big year, bringing a 20-5 record into Thursday night’s game against Washington State.