SAD NEWS: Julio Frenk set to Leave Miami for UCLA.

University of Miami may be stuck in the ACC…for now…but its soon-to-be former President is heading to the Big Ten.

Julio Frenk, the president of the University of Miami, has reportedly been nominated by the University of California regents to be UCLA’s next chancellor, effective January 20, 25. He will be the first Latino to oversee that organization, as was the case for Miami when Frenk joined in 2016.

The University of Miami chose Frenk based on his administrative and medical qualifications. Before being employed by Miami, he held the position of head of Harvard’s School of Public Health and was the Minister of Health for Mexico. Given his background, one of Frenk’s greatest achievements as president of UM was turning the University of Miami hospital system, UHealth, into a money-printing machine, ranking 12th among nonprofit universities in income.

From a sports standpoint, Frenk might be best known for his 2021 hiring of Dan Radakovich from Clemson and Mario Cristobal from Oregon as UM’s new athletic director and head football coach, respectively, and firing of then-athletic director Blake James and head football coach Manny Diaz. Both were expensive, far more than Miami had ever been prepared to part with for the head of its athletic department. Frenk allegedly took money out of UHealth’s profits to pay for Radakovich and Cristobal.

Under Frenk’s leadership, Miami also experienced a substantial infrastructural investment for its athletic department. The football team at Miami finally has a contemporary, climate-controlled practice space on campus with the opening of the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility in 2018. The Canes’ homefield advantage in September is undoubtedly enhanced by their outdoor practices in the South Florida heat, but their inability to build an indoor facility has proven to be a significant recruitment barrier. Miami also revealed plans to build a new football operations center on the Coral Gables campus last year. Near the WATSCO center, a six-story building is currently under construction. It will house state-of-the-art locker, training, and medical facilities just for the football team. Presumably, the new building would provide space for the Hecht Athletic Center to be improved for benefit of miami other sport programs.

President Frenk will be missed by Hurricanes sports enthusiasts. The relationship between Cristobal and Radakovich may or may not work out; both are going through a critical year as the ACC faces legal action and pressure to become relevant again in football. Still, UMiami extended its pocketbook wider than before to bolster the athletic department under Frenk’s direction. Fans and alumni can only hope for that, and it goes above and beyond what Miami has done in the past.