OU athletic director Joe Castiglione to retire after 28 years

Oklahoma will be looking for a new athletic director for the first time in nearly three decades.

OU athletic director Joe Castiglione is set to retire after 28 years at the helm of Sooner sports. Castiglione will stay on for the calendar year as the Sooners begin a search for his replacement. Castiglione will assist in the search and will stay on as athletic director emeritus after the hire is made, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

The Sooners will hold a press conference at 9 a.m. Tuesday to announce Castiglione’s retirement. The press conference will be attended by Castiglione, OU president Joseph Harroz Jr. and OU board of regents chair Anita Holloway.

The announcement represents the end of one of the most significant era in Oklahoma athletics history.

Castiglione, 67, was hired as the program’s athletic director in the summer of 1998. Since then, he has overseen 26 national championships — including the football program’s 2000 championship — and 117 league titles. He also played a significant role in the Sooners’ transition from the Big 12 to the SEC, and the Sooners’ recent hire of Jim Nagy as the new football general manager.

Per Thamel, Castiglione approached the administration around a month ago about his plans to retire. He is currently the longest-tenured athletic director in college sports.

Castiglione’s retirement comes at an incredibly pivotal time for Oklahoma. The Sooners’ football program heads into Brent Venables’ fourth season with the program and facing a ton of pressure after two losing seasons in three years. The Sooners also opted into revenue sharing with its athletes as part of the House v. NCAA settlement.

Harroz is tasked with finding a replacement who will mitigate uncharted territory for collegiate athletics, as well as maintain OU’s competitiveness in the SEC. Most of all, that replacement will have huge shoes to fill.