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They are: ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™s Desireé Reed-Francois; Ross Bjork, Ohio State; Whit Babcock, Virginia Tech; Mark Alnutt, Buffalo; Mack Rhoades, Baylor; Lee Reed, Georgetown; Brian Wickstrom, UL-Monroe; Doug Gillin, Appalachian State; Darren Dunn, Northern Colorado; Dan Hauser, High Point and Mark Ingram, UAB.

Even though Reed-Francois has been an AD for nine years, (at UNLV, Missouri and ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥), a woman becoming an AD in the Power 4 conferences remains something like breaking into a good ol’ boys club. I mean, did you know the ADs at North Carolina State and North Carolina are named Boo and Bubba?

Today there are a mere six female ADs in the 68 AD spots in Power 4 conferences: Reed-Francois; Duke’s Nina King, Iowa’s Beth Goetz, USC’s Jen Cohen, Vanderbilt’s Candice Storey Lee and Virginia’s Carla Williams.

We can now see that after one year at ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥, Reed-Francois fully belongs in the Good Ol’ Boys Club or any club of athletic directors. It’s unlikely that any ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ AD, dating to Pop McKale 100 years ago, had a more daunting first year than Reed-Francois, a get-it-done performance reminiscent of the rebuilding jobs done by former ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ ADs Dick Clausen, 1958-72, and Cedric Dempsey, 1983-93.

Reed-Francois has stabilized the UA athletic department by hiring 14 to a front office staff that needed a facelift. She hired three head coaches, reduced debt and unnecessary spending, created a new revenue-generation strategy, and has even sold as many football season tickets as last year, despite 2024’s crushing 4-8 season.

A year ago, Reed-Francois eliminated the long-standing Learfield organization, a seven-member group responsible for sports marketing, radio and TV advertising. Many predicted it was a financially fatal decision. Yet Reed-Francois now says her “ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Sports Enterprisesâ€� group has met 108% of projected income.

The ever-aggressive Reed-Francois has established a 24/7, day-to-day pace that few in the industry could match, and frankly, one that ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ desperately needed.

In the last month, she attended 19 of the 22 stops on the “Bear Down Takeover,� tour — from Douglas and Nogales to Scottsdale and Los Angeles — as well as spending time in Washington D.C. in her role as one of the 10 members of the newly formed NCAA “transition team,� whose primary responsibility is to create a system for managing and enforcing the compensation of student-athletes in Division I sports.

She goes to lunch with five student-athletes per month, hoping to get to know what the athletic department can do to make their experience more productive. She established an Assistant Coaches Academy for about 40 assistant coaches, helping to prepare them to be head coaches. She had a job fair for student-athletes at which about 50 Tucson firms were represented.

She says she has accumulated the $20 million needed to match other Power 4 schools in the House committee’s revenue sharing program that will be implemented in the fall. She is making progress in naming rights for both ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Stadium and McKale Center.

Beyond those financial matters, she proved she was prepared and ahead of the departure of women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes to SMU. Reed-Francois already had 10 candidates on her list of possible replacements and made the hire of Buffalo’s impressive Becky Burke in what seemed like record time (five days).

Being a Power 4 athletic director is so stressful and demanding that the job of an AD has become a revolving door. Since Reed-Francois began her work in Tucson, 15 of the other 67 Power 4 jobs have opened. That’s more than 20% of the AD field.

Big 12 rivals BYU, ASU, Houston and TCU all replaced ADs after Reed-Francois was hired.

Power 4 schools South Carolina, Maryland, Michigan State, Rutgers, Nebraska, Northwestern, Texas A&M, Stanford, Pitt and SMU all had (or have) openings for athletic directors. Of those hired, no jobs went to women. Reed-Francois is the only female Big 12 AD.

But that’s old news.

About 20 years ago, Reed Francois was an assistant AD on the Fresno State staff when she was introduced to Dempsey, the former ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ AD and president of the NCAA. Dempsey had been hired as a consultant to review the FSU athletic department.

Dempsey and Reed-Francois went to lunch one day, during which she asked Dempsey for career advice. At the time, her career plan was to try to become the senior women’s athletic administrator at her alma mater, UCLA, or at ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥, where she graduated from law school.

“I think you should strive to go beyond that,â€� Dempsey told her. “You should work to be the athletic director at UCLA or ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥.â€�

So far, so good.