Missouri expected to name Memphis' Laird Veatch as next athletic director | Report

It took some time, but Missouri is near to naming its new athletic director.

Missouri is working toward naming Memphis’ Laird Veatch as its next athletic director, per a report from Pete Thamel of ESPN. The news comes 63 days — exactly nine weeks — after former MU AD Desireé Reed-Francois left the university for the same role at Arizona.

Veatch has two previous stints with Missouri, having spent five years with the university between 1997-2002, holding titles such as assistant AD for development; director of athletics development for major giving; and director of annual giving and development coordinator. He also worked for Learfield Sports, a sports marketing company, managing Mizzou Sports properties between 2003-10.

While at Missouri, Veatch oversaw fundraising activities with a special focus on facility upgrades, managed the Tigers Scholarship fund and directed a $102 million capital fundraising campaign.

His background in fundraising is likely what gave him a leg up as Missouri looked for a new AD.

On Thursday on the campus of Missouri S&T after the approval of a $250 million renovation to Memorial Stadium's north concourse, Bob Blitz, a board of curator and member of the 11-person search committee tasked with hiring Missouri's next AD, said that the two "top priorities" were fundraising and championship ambitions.

Missouri hired the search firm TurnKey ZRG to assist with the hire, which came with a $125,000 fee.

Veatch was previously the athletic director at Memphis, where he was hired in 2019. He hired football coach Ryan Silverfield, extended men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway and made two hires for the women’s basketball team — Katrina Merriwether and Alex Simmons — during his time as AD. He also hired current Missouri baseball coach Kerrick Jackson.

Veatch replaces Reed-Francois, who left Missouri for the same role at Arizona on Feb. 19. Reed-Francois was hired at Mizzou in 2021. Veatch reportedly was a candidate during that hiring process.

Reed-Francois secured record-setting revenue numbers during her time at Missouri, including an anonymous $62 million gift in early February, with $50 million of which tabbed for the renovation of Memorial Stadium.

In Memphis, Veatch partnered with the city to secure a $200 million upgrade to the Tigers' football stadium. Last Friday, Memphis announced a $25 million Name, Image and Likeness partnership with FedEx.

An intriguing challenge for MU’s new athletic director will be freedom under the eye of an oversight committee led by a group of four of MU’s Board of Curators.

On Thursday in Rolla, Blitz said the committee was not out of the ordinary in the current landscape of college athletics.

"We felt, in fulfilling our fiduciary duty, that it was a must to step in and find out more about what was going on in the athletic department,” Blitz said. “We're not trying to pick coaches, we're not trying to do those kinds of things. We're trying to make sure that the athletic department is running in a financially responsible way and doing the best they can.”

Silverfield is 31-18 since becoming Memphis head football coach in 2020, and the Tigers have won all three bowls they’ve been to with him at the helm. Last season, Memphis went 10-3, with one of those three losses coming in Week 4 of the season against Eli Drinkwitz’s Missouri team in St. Louis.

Hardaway’s men’s basketball team made it to the NCAA Tournament twice during Veatch’s time in Memphis, reaching the second round in the 2021-22 season and falling in the first round in in the 2022-23 campaign. The Tigers had not been to the Tournament since the 2013-14 before their back-to-back appearances. Memphis did not win less than 20 games during Veatch’s time as athletic director.

After 13-year head coach Melissa McFerrin retired in 2021, Veatch hired Merriwether to coach Memphis’ women’s basketball team. She went 38-23 in two seasons and made it to one WNI, before leaving to take the head coaching role at her alma mater, Cincinnati. Veatch then hired Alex Simmons, who went 13-17 with a .500 mark in AAC play last season.

One of Veatch’s impending decisions is the future of women’s basketball coach Robin Pingeton, who is entering the final year of her contract without an NCAA Tournament appearance since 2019.

Veatch is a graduate of Kansas State, where he was a linebacker and team captain under head coach Bill Snyder. He spent several years working in various roles in the Wildcats’ athletic department beginning in 2010, including as deputy athletic director. Before becoming the AD at Memphis, he was the executive associate athletic director of internal affairs at Florida.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri expected to name Memphis' Laird Veatch as next AD | Report