Oklahoma insider on retirement of Joe Castiglione: 'It's been coming'

On Monday, Oklahoma shocked fans around the country when it announced athletic director Joe Castiglione will be retiring this year. However, SoonerScoop’s George Stoia III claims the move wasn’t a surprise to people inside the athletics department.

“I do think that this is something that’s been coming,” Stoia said. “It’s been one of those questions that even I’ve asked Joe over the last couple years, like, ‘Hey, how much longer do you want to do this?’ And I know down in Destin he had kind of hinted at maybe this being his last go-around.

“With the ever-evolving nature of college athletics right now, OU’s move to the SEC. Joe’s 67 years old, like you said. He’s been the AD now at Oklahoma 28 years. He was at Missouri before that, he’s been doing this a long time.”

That’s an understatement. Castiglione has been Oklahoma’s athletic director since 1998. He’s been working in collegiate athletics since 1979, when he worked in sports promotions at Rice.

Since Castiglione took over at Oklahoma, the school has won a total of 25 national championships in college athletics, including in football (2000) and softball (2000, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024). Castiglione was instrumental in guiding Oklahoma during its transition from the Big 12 to the SEC.

The 67-year-old has hired three football head coaches during his tenure at Oklahoma: Bob Stoops, Lincoln Riley and Brent Venables. Additionally, he’s hired three men’s basketball head coaches: Jeff Capel, Lon Kruger and Porter Moser.

However, time takes a toll on even the most resilient figures in college sports. Now, Stoia believes Joe Castiglione is feeling time weighing on him.

“You look at all the change that’s happening in college athletics, you look at the changing happening at OU — hiring a football front office, Randall Stephenson stepping in,” Stoia said. “[Castiglione] obviously wants to be a part of this moving forward, and he will be. I know this year he’s still going to serve as the AD, until they hire a new AD, which we can get into that a little bit but I think that for Joe, it was just time to be like, ‘Hey, I’ve done this for a long time.’

“He’s done a great job at it. Considered one of the best, if not the best AD in the country for a long time, and I think he decided it was time for him to finally maybe take a step back.”