By Friday afternoon, the bios of the eight employees of Wildcat Sports Properties -- the Learfield IMG team “in charge of media rights income” for Univ. of Arizona Athletics -- had been “scrubbed from the UA’s online staff directory,” according to Greg Hansen of the ARIZONA DAILY STAR. Hansen noted Joe Moeller, VP & GM of UA’s Learfield operation for 12 years and “one of the ranking names in the vast Learfield college sports industry,” is one of the cuts. Moeller is a “highly capable man” whose path to UA included five years as Arizona State’s senior director of development. Hansen wrote “although it may possibly save about $750,000 in salaries, this is a significant risk by” Arizona AD Desireé Reed-Francois. She has hired former Univ. of Missouri assistant AD for Marketing and Creative Services Nikki Barry. Barry, who “had a listed salary at Missouri this year of $63,600,” will be “responsible for operations and fulfillment.” Reed-Francois believes this move can “someday more than double the UA’s annual income from Learfield” (about $7M). Hansen: “Does she know something that Alabama AD Greg Byrne, Texas AD Chris del Conte and Ohio State AD Gene Smith don’t know? All employ Learfield, among 161 schools to do so.” Reed-Francois is “eliminating the middleman. She is swinging for the fences and betting on herself,” but it “could be an uphill battle.” Hansen noted that former Arizona AD Dave Heeke was “about to sign a 10-year contract extension with Learfield” before being fired in January. Hansen: “As we are seeing, Reed-Francois is doing her own paradigm shift” (ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 6/22).
