Potential Mizzou athletic director has track record of NIL innovation
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Editor's Note: The name of the school Desireé Reed-Francois now is at has been corrected.
The University of Missouri may have found its next athletic director. On Monday, college athletics insider Pete Thamel reported that MU Athletics could be hiring University of Memphis Athletic Director Laird Veatch.
Veatch was at the forefront of NIL efforts at Memphis, according to his biography on the school's athletic website. Under his leadership, Memphis became one of the first 10 schools in the country to hire a Director of Name, Image and Likeness. In September 2023, Memphis entered a partnership with Altius Sports Partners to develop an Athlete Services Department. At the time they were only the second school in the country to have a department dedicated to NIL.
NIL legislation in Missouri is something that former Mizzou Athletic Director Desireé Reed-Francois was a proponent for. Laurence Bowers, the Executive Director of Marketing at Every True Tiger Brands, an NIL marketing agency, said that he was worried when Reed-Francois left for the University of Arizona.
“She was very very instrumental in what we’ve been able to accomplish in the name, image, and likeness landscape, and truth be told she was an incredible athletic director,” Bowers said. “I’m very relieved that we went out and hired someone like Laird. I feel like the torch would be carried if not held higher.”
The Associated Press estimated in 2022 that around $917 million was spent on NIL around the country in its first year. Veatch made the 901 Fund, a NIL platform that works with connecting student-athletes with local charities, as an official sponsor of Memphis Athletics that aims "to amplify the work being done in the community," per the school's website.
The Tiger Scholarship Fund has a similar goal of instilling the importance of philanthropy to MU student-athletes.
“Given Laird’s background, he was there with Mizzou Sports Property he knows a lot of the ins and outs of multimedia and IP and sales, which NIL is basically you know, when you’re going out getting these branding deals, it’s a very similar construct to how Learfield operates,” Bowers said. “Given his background you know, he’s very familiar in the area, he knows a lot of people and has ties to the community.”
Veatch is no stranger to Columbia. In 1997 he was hired as the Director of Annual Giving & Development Coordinator. He served in various roles in the University of Missouri Athletic Department before leaving in 2002 to become the Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Operations at Iowa State.
A year later, he resumed working with Mizzou as the general manager for Learfield Sports, according to his bio. He became the Regional Vice President for Learfield Sports’ Heartland Division in 2006, a title he held until 2010, Memphis' website states. His connections in the area are one of the things that made him an attractive candidate.
“We’re getting a fairly known commodity who has taken the skills he’s learned here and multiplied them,” MU alumni Wally Pfeffer said.
While Veatch was at MU, he had the opportunity to work under Mike Alden. Alden held the athletic director title for 17 years, which included big moments for Mizzou athletics, including hiring former head coach Gary Pinkel and the Tigers moving from the Big 12 to the SEC. Pfeffer believes that connection to the athletic program makes Veatch a great candidate.
"If we took a map of the United States and put pins where the people who worked with Mike Alden and learned the athletic department kind of business from Mike Alden it would be all over the country," Pfeffer said.
If MU does hire Veatch, Bowers said he’s in favor of the choice.
"I think he'll be a great pioneer and continue to carry the torch," Bowers said. "I don't think we'll change what we're doing but that's also kind of shallow to say because NIL is ever changing so we'll adapt as we go."
Check back for updates.
