UNLV AD Desiree Reed-Francois leaving for Missouri

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Published Sunday, Aug. 8, 2021 | 2:36 p.m.

Updated Sunday, Aug. 8, 2021 | 7:02 p.m.

UNLV’s athletic department has taken on the distinct look of a revolving door over the past 10 years, and it continues to turn. On Sunday, athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois agreed to become the next AD at Missouri and will leave UNLV after four years on the job.

Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports first reported the move.

Reed-Francois signed a four-year extension with UNLV just three months ago, a pact that would have run through 2026, but the move doesn’t come as a surprise. She has pursued several open positions in recent years and was a finalist to become UCLA’s athletic director last summer before landing the Missouri job.

It will be a return to the SEC for Reed-Francois, who was deputy AD at Tennessee from 2009 to 2013, and it comes at an important time, as realignment figures to change the landscape of college athletics over the next few years.

That also makes it an inconvenient time for UNLV to be looking for a new athletic director. As power conferences grow and re-form into super conferences and amass more wealth, a mid-major school with upward ambitions such as UNLV will have to be proactive in providing a good, secure landing spot to attract top candidates.

Reed-Francois came to UNLV in 2017 and had mixed results with her coaching hires. One of her biggest moves was firing incumbent basketball coach Marvin Menzies and hiring T.J. Otzelberger from South Dakota State as a replacement; Otzelberger went on to post a 29-30 record in two seasons at UNLV before bolting for Iowa State. Reed-Francois then elevated assistant Kevin Kruger, making him a first-time head coach.

Her other major hire was Marcus Arroyo, who was tabbed to lead the football program after Reed-Francois fired incumbent Tony Sanchez during the 2019 season. Arroyo went 0-6 in his first year as a head coach and the program’s prospects for 2021 don't appear much better, as sportsbooks have set the team’s over/under at 1.5 wins.

Reed-Francois will become the second woman hired as an athletic director in the Southeastern Conference and the first at one of the league’s 13 public schools. Candice Storey Lee was named AD at Vanderbilt, the SEC’s lone private school, last year.

“This is a transformational day for Mizzou Athletics,” Missouri President Choi said in a statement. “Desiree Reed-Francois brings an unsurpassed passion for student-athletes and bold, visionary skills that will propel a championship culture at MU. As a proud member of the SEC, we are energized to go into the next era of Mizzou athletics with Desiree Reed-Francois at the helm.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.