Why Missouri football will be king under new Mizzou athletic director Laird Veatch

Laird Veatch simultaneously got a gift and a gauntlet.

During his introductory press conference Friday at the still-shiny, $33-million Stephens Indoor Facility, the new Missouri athletic director was presented a No. 22 Missouri football jersey by UM System President Mun Choi and chair of the board of curators Robin Wenneker.

Choi asked Veatch why he thought ‘22’ was the chosen number.

“The 22nd athletic director (in Missouri history),” Veatch accurately responded, but not quite in full.

“We want you here,” Choi responded, “for 22 years.”

Veatch, a key cog in the Missouri athletic department’s fundraising arm between 1997-2002 and more recently the AD at Memphis, is back in Columbia, following a more-than-two-month search to make him the next head of the Tigers’ athletic department. He replaces Desireé Reed-Francois, who is now the AD at Arizona. Veatch’s official start date is May 1.

More: 3 questions facing new Missouri athletic director Laird Veatch on Day 1

Both Choi and Wenneker mentioned how much they noticed Veatch wanted to return, and noted that was a vital part of bringing him back. Veatch choked up when he recalled three of his four children being born in Columbia, the mention of ‘Mr. Mizzou’ John Kadlec and, most of all, when he recalled a message from his mother, who told him that at “some point in your life, you will look back and be able to see God's hands.”

“It hit me right then,” Veatch said. “This is God’s hand. This is where we want to be.”

His new bosses made their position clear over the course of his re-introduction to Columbia: They want success, and they want Veatch — the fourth Mizzou athletic director in the past nine years — to bring it over a sustained period of time.

And there was a very clear directive for how the administration wants to make that happen.

It was apt that he was presented with a football jersey. It’s no coincidence his introduction, in front of family and friends and donors and more, came under the roof of the latest investment for the Missouri football team, too.

Veatch recognized the reason. It was almost the first words out of his mouth as he addressed the room for the first time Friday.

“Let me be very direct from the beginning,” he said. “There's nothing more important than football success, particularly in this conference. Coach (Eli Drinkwitz), I can't wait to partner with you on what you're doing.”

This is the Southeastern Conference, after all, where football rules the roost.

There’s an abundance of Name, Image and Likeness opportunities, which means partnership opportunities for the university.

There’s an expensive stadium upgrade on deck, and all the high-cost premium seating that will bring.

But taking the bigger picture: Missouri athletics relied on a large sum of direct institutional support — nearly $23 million of it — to finish the fiscal year 2023 in the black by $1.

After an 11-2 season that finished with a Cotton Bowl win, Choi is beginning to see the benefits toward enrollment. That means revenue.

“We also have to focus on where the revenues are being generated, and football generates a significant component of the revenue,” Choi said. … “Let's take Alabama for example: They are competing at a high level in basketball and in so many other sports, partly because of the success in football to generate the revenue. The future of college sports will be all about generating the revenue and managing the expenses.”

Veatch’s challenge is to not get in the way of, and indeed to assist in bringing, sustained success for Eli Drinkwitz’s team as it enters the soon-to-be 16-team SEC and 12-team College Football Playoff.

“Football ultimately drives the success that's going to impact everybody else,” Veatch said. … “You have to have sustained football success in our world to change kind of that sustained demand that you need to really continue to increase revenues. And by doing that, it will also start to raise the bar across the board for other sports.”

How does he help Drinkwitz’s Tigers reach the top?

Adopting and assisting the $250-million Memorial Stadium project, which will see the north concourse renovated and upgraded by October 2026, and capitalizing on all the money-making opportunities that can bring is a good place to start. Making sure the state continues to be forward thinking when it comes to NIL is another priority.

Both Veatch and his new employers made it very clear that football will wear the crown on Day 1.

If he wants to make it to Year 22 — he joked he’s still waiting for that contract with Choi — it was put in no uncertain terms that football will stay king.

“First of all, I think having Coach Drinkwitz as the football coach and the success that we're seeing and the potential that's there — that's step one, because that is the reality. We have to have football be successful,” Veatch said. … “I will tell you, I'm going to be jumping on fundraising, because ultimately, like I said, revenue is the frontline of college athletics. To have that, we have to have those investments.”

More: New Missouri athletic director Laird Veatch has contract approved. Here are the details

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Why Missouri football will be king under new Mizzou AD Laird Veatch