NORMAN – When Joe Castiglione took the job nearly 28 years ago, his role was significantly different from what it is at the time he will officially step away.
Castiglione announced his upcoming retirement on Monday, putting an end to a long and decorated career that includes 26 national championships and other accomplishments. But now, a new sheriff has to come to town. Harroz gave Castiglione props for having the foresight to move Oklahoma from the Big 12 to the SEC ahead of the multiple changes coming to college sports, including revenue sharing, NIL, and other adjustments to how programs recruit and retain players each year. Castiglione was able to adapt as much as he possibly could in a time when his job description changed over time. However, it remains unclear whether that will be enough to keep Oklahoma a powerhouse in multiple sports for the foreseeable future.
Which is why the next athletic director hire will be such a big deal for the Sooners. Castiglione and OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. stressed that the next athletic director was going to have to be someone who has the foresight to see how college sports will change and be able to adapt. At the same time, the new athletic director will have to deal with the biggest hurdle that has come to college athletic departments across the country. Compensation.
"It might take different shapes and forms before we get there," Castiglione said on Tuesday, "but the idea of recognizing the world we're in, the athletes that contribute their time, their talent, and the universities they represent, involves compensation. And it's so much more because we're colleges, not pros. Who knows what the world means, whether it's employee-based or not, and who knows what certain sports do to stay successful? But there's still the mesh, like any team, pro or college, high school, junior high, the softball leagues, every team has the connection of the mesh point, why you're part of it. We've got to be better in that space."
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(Photo: NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN, USA TODAY Sports)
And just like Oklahoma is asking for that foresight out of the next AD, the Sooners' athletic department believes they are being innovative in the front office as well. Because of the compensation challenge, Oklahoma has already had a major restructuring of how the athletic department works, specifically for the revenue-generating sport of football. Oklahoma hired a General Manager, who was initially Curtis Lofton Jr., before bringing in Jim Nagy this offseason. Nagy has brought his 18 years of experience in evaluating future professional players and nearly 10 evaluators with him to help with that process.
"When we recruited (Jim) Nagy, he immediately recruited those that came with him and they were immediately attracted to the fact that it was a unique structure," Harroz said. "And that this athletic director and this institution recognized what today and tomorrow look like and that we're prepared to lead into that."
The fact of the matter is that landing a 5-star player is good, but it's not as important as it once was, given that a program will likely have to make a big financial commitment on a highly rated prospect who could leave at the next transfer portal cycle. With that difficulty in mind, Oklahoma is hoping that the AD candidates they're targeting will appreciate the NFL-style front office that's in place at OU, which seems to be focused on finding diamonds in the rough. And likely win in a way that hasn't necessarily been proven to work yet under the new format that is college football.
"My belief," Harroz said, "is that by having this unique front office structure is that it will attract candidates that are very serious people that want to win at the highest level and that understand that we're serious about giving the next Joe C the tools that are necessary to innovate and to lead into a changed landscape. So I think it's a really important attribute that allows us to demonstrate and not just say that we're innovative, that we're cutting edge, and that we know how to adapt to disruption and that we're committed to winning in that environment."