Balls and strikes. Yards after catch. Three point plays.

Phrases like these have been staples of stories about college sporting events for decades.

But these days, it’s nearly impossible to read news about the events shaping the present and future of college athletics without seeing three more words.

“The changing landscape.”

On Monday, Laird Veatch, the man hired last month as Athletic Director to lead the University of Missouri’s charge into that changing landscape, walks into his new office for the first time despite being on the job since May 1.

The changing landscape is now dominated by big money, name, image and likeness rights for athletes and unfettered freedom to transfer.

Veatch has been busy wrapping up his tenure in Memphis, attending Southeastern Conference meetings and meeting with MU donors.

Thursday night in St. Charles, he joined Head Football Coach Eli Drinkwitz and Men’s Head Basketball Coach Dennis Gates, along with other coaches and student-athletes at an offseason caravan event at Chicken N Pickle to meet alumni, fans, and yes, more donors.

“The reality of college athletics is revenue is now kind of the front line of competition. That may sound harsh, people may not like that, but you have to have support.

Financial support, you have to have people showing up at your games in order to be competitive in order to have the resources to be competitive on the field, on the courts and all that,” he told reporters, assuring the St. Louis region that as much as he wants fans here to make the trip to Columbia, he and his staff will spend a significant amount of time here cultivating more than just potential recruits.

Veatch, who worked under former MU AD Mike Alden, returns to Mizzou with a track record for raising money and involvement in big football stadium projects–two things that will be necessary for success in Columbia.

Last month the school unveiled a $250 million north end zone project–at least half of which will  be privately funded, at the same time that the largest FBS programs, including MU, are reportedly preparing for more structural changes in the form of revenue sharing with student-athletes.