Joe Castiglione retirement: Oklahoma insider lists multiple names to watch in athletic director search

While not surprising given his quarter-century in the role, Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione‘s retirement announcement Monday leaves Sooners faithful wondering who will next their their beloved athletic department beginning in 2027. Well, SoonerScoop‘s George Stoia and Eddie Radosevich came bearing gifts during Monday’s “Instant Reaction” SoonerScoop podcast, revealing multiple possibilities to replace Castiglione as the Sooners next AD.

Stoia, who revealed 10 potential Oklahoma AD candidates in an exclusive post on On3’s SoonerScoop, opened Monday’s discussion by delving into potential mindset of those making the ultimate decision. Will Castiglione be able to pick his own successor? Does that mean OU will look to hire from within its current athletic department or go outside for some new blood?

“If they hire an AD in the next few months, will he move into that role earlier? I’m exactly not sure. Maybe they hire somebody and they’re just the AD-in-waiting. That could be the situation, or maybe they hire someone internally. I don’t know,” Stoia said. “I know Marcus Bowman has been thrown around as a name inside the building that could be a potential candidate as well. I do think it’ll be an outside hire. Maybe somebody with OU connections. (Mississippi State AD) Zac Selmon, obviously, Wren Baker at West Virginia has a lot of Oklahoma state ties, so maybe he’s a candidate that’s thrown out there. I listed several (candidates) on SoonerScoop.com that you can check out that have some OU or Oklahoma ties in general.”

Selmon, who was hired at Mississippi State in early 2023 after nine years working directly under Castiglione within OU’s athletic department, is the hot name being tossed around, especially given his connection to Oklahoma — Selmon is a native of Norman and earned his Master’s in Education from OU. Baker, another Oklahoma native, has been West Virginia’s AD since 2022 and has previous experience at Oklahoma State, where he also received his master’s degree. Meanwhile, based on Stoia’s understanding, Bowman appears to be the preferred in-house candidate after joining the OU administration in 2020.

Radosevich also dropped another name that could work himself into the Oklahoma mix: Florida State AD Michael Alford, who also worked under Castiglione as the Sooners’ AD for marketing from 2012-17. Alford has only been at FSU for going on five years, but he would certainly make sense for OU, especially given the Seminoles football team’s struggles last season and potential for more upheaval if significant improvement isn’t made this season.

“Michael Alford, another name that worked within the (Oklahoma) athletic department, something that Pete Thamel (reported) and you put in your story as well,” Radosevich added. “Under Joe Castiglione, the last 50 years, and predominantly the last 35-40 years as the athletic director at Missouri or Oklahoma, 32 different persons have worked under him (and) moved on to a commissioner role or another athletic director role of their own.”

Suffice it to say, Oklahoma has plenty of options to replace its longtime athletic director. How that decision is ultimately made is another situation altogether.

“It’s impressive. He’s had a lot of people that have come through that have gone on to do great things in college athletics. That’s why you have a wide range of candidates that you could go after. Whether it’s those 32 (pupils) or somebody on the outside,” Stoia continued. “That’s why I said it’s fascinating that Joe Harris came out and said, ‘Randall Stephenson is the one leading this charge.’ It’s definitely a changing of the times at Oklahoma right now, and we’ve seen that over the last year. Really ever since Curtis Lofton a year ago was named the GM of OU football. He’s since left and they hired Randall Stephenson to come in and basically do it for free to come up with Oklahoma’s plan for revenue sharing. Joe Harroz has now been the president for a few years, so it’s going to be interesting.

“And this new AD, whoever it is, can end up making a monumental hire for Oklahoma. If things do go well this season for OU football, do they move on from Brent Venables? And who’s decision is that? Is it Joe Castiglione, who could be the AD still at that time? … Jim Nagy, I think, will have a huge say in all of football operations moving forward. Randall Stephenson obviously has a lot of say in things. Joe Harroz is pulling strings. The Board of Regents, what say do they have in that (potential hire)? I think it’s all very interesting and I think something that I hope we get clarified a little (Tuesday), just what is the hierarchy moving forward.”