TUCSON, Ariz. – The University of Arizona Department of Athletics has created Arizona Sports Enterprises (ASE) to manage its multimedia rights agreements and operations, Vice President and Director of Athletics Desireé Reed-Francois announced. The transition of multimedia rights is part of the department's plans to build a modern college athletics model adaptive and responsive to the fluid national landscape, and to provide a strong financial foundation as Arizona enters the Big 12 Conference this summer.
"The creation of Arizona Sports Enterprises will allow Arizona Athletics to strengthen its connection to corporate sponsors, elevate Arizona Athletics as a brand and allow the athletics department to focus on delivering more value to its partners," Reed-Francois said. "A strong financial model is critical to our ability to continue providing a first-class experience for our student-athletes to compete at the highest level, to develop as champions in the classroom and to serve as a point of pride for the University of Arizona. We want to thank our longtime rightsholder, Learfield, for their partnership and support of our student-athletes and athletics department over the years."
ASE plans to engage with Learfield as its exclusive third-party national sales firm.
ABOUT ARIZONA ATHLETICS
With a championship history that spans over a century, Arizona Athletics has won 22 team national championships and 201 individual NCAA titles. Arizona sponsors 22 athletic programs and will officially join the Big 12 Conference in 2024. The athletics department has also achieved record-breaking academic success in recent years with all-time high Graduate Success Rate (GSR) scores and department grade point averages.
The Wildcats won five team conference championships in 2023-24, which were the most Pac-12 titles Arizona has won in a single year since joining the Conference in 1978. Four Arizona student-athletes have been named Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year this year alongside a pair of Academic All-Americans.
