Castiglione should stay with Sooners: Big 12 commissioner opening a step down Castiglione should stay with Sooners
By Berry Tramel
Published: June 15, 2007
Kevin Weiberg kept saying it. Over and over again, as he announced why he was fleeing Las Colinas. Almost to the point where you believed him.
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"Nine years is a long time in a job like this.”
No doubt he's right. Navigating the Big 12 Conference, trying to keep happy 12 presidents and 12 athletic directors and posses of Sooners and Longhorns and Cornhuskers, that will wear you out.
Which brings us to Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione. Joe C. came to Norman in April 1998; Weiberg took the Big 12 reins in October of the same year.
Weiberg calls his nine years a long time, but Castiglione has been in his pressure cooker post six months longer, balancing budgets, firing and hiring coaches, trying to stay clean with the NCAA.
So might Joe C. grow restless after nine years, too? Might Joe C. jump if the Big 12 comes calling?
No, I say. The job Castiglione has is better than the job Weiberg leaves.
At OU, Castiglione has to keep president David Boren happy. Down in Dallas, the Big 12 trail boss has to keep a dozen David Borens happy.
Plus, for whatever reason, the Big 12 job never has developed into an influential post. Not like the lords of the SEC, Big East and Pac-10. The Big 12 commissioner has been an administrator, not a visionary, and that's more than just because of Weiberg's mild style.
Athletic director at a big-time school is more prestigious than commissioner of the Big 12. And more fun. Deeper relationships, more celebrations, more gratification.
Would Castiglione be interested in moving to Dallas? Thursday, Castiglione wanted no part of the question. No good way to answer it, he said. If he says yes, if he says no, if he says maybe, all responses send different messages to different people. Best to just stay mum.
Except Castiglione offered this. He would like to be the Oklahoma athletic director the next nine years. Wouldn't mind running Sooner sports for a quarter century.
"I'm really happy at Oklahoma,” Joe C. said.
"As you know, I've had numerous other opportunities (including Tennessee). I really never thought about doing that because how much I enjoy Oklahoma.”
Can he see himself as the AD at Oklahoma as long as DeLoss Dodds has been AD at Texas? Twenty-six years?
"I'd like to think so,” Castiglione said. "I'm also mindful of the fact that part of that is out of my hands. Someone could think it's time for a change.”
OU athletics have had a rough past year. NCAA basketball sanctions, then the Rhett Bomar scandal. Castiglione does not seem discouraged.
"Nothing's ever going to be perfect,” Castiglione said. "I want to help this program be as successful as it can be.
"I feel like Oklahoma's one of the really special places in the country. I don't want that to sound like rhetoric, but it's true.”
Castiglione should be attractive to the Big 12. He's been AD in both divisions (OU and Missouri), he knows all the movers and shakers in the television and bowl business, he's nationally recognized as one of the sharper sticks in collegiate sport.
The Big 12 could not find a better candidate than Joe C. But Castiglione can find a better job than the one left open by Weiberg.
It's the job Castiglione has.
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