Regents OK raise for Castiglione
AD will be making $700,000 a year
Regents OK raise for OU AD Castiglione

By Scott Wright

Published: June 26, 2008

It's a familiar tactic — one Oklahoma vice president and athletics director Joe Castiglione uses to entice his top coaches to stay around.

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Now the OU administration is doing the same to keep Castiglione in Norman.

Castiglione received a new contract Wednesday which included a stay bonus worth $300,000 if Castiglione remains at OU for the duration of the five-year pact. The contract, which was approved by the OU Board of Regents at their regular meeting Wednesday in Ardmore, also included a $20,000 per year raise, bringing his total yearly salary to $700,000.

Other business at the Regents' meeting included review and approval of several other coaches' contracts, including the new deal for OU basketball coach Jeff Capel. Capel's contract extension brought his yearly salary to $1.05 million and included a stay bonus totaling $600,000 if he remains at OU through 2014.

Boren praised Castiglione for his work over the past decade and said OU is among only six universities nationally that have self-sustaining athletic programs that don't rely on public funding. Some athletic revenue even gets used academically for the OU library.

"It's a remarkable accomplishment,” Boren said.

That's a big reason OU is working to keep Castiglione on the job. The athletic department was facing a growing debt when he was hired away from Missouri in 1998, and his success at OU has regularly drawn the attention of other organizations.

The University of Tennessee pursued Castiglione hard in 2003, when the school president and other officials came to Oklahoma City to meet with him. Michigan and Ohio State also showed interest at different times. And Castiglione was among early candidates for the job of Big 12 commissioner when current commissioner Dan Beebe was hired in 2007.

Castiglione thanked Boren and regents and said it's always been an honor to work at OU.

"I look forward to many more years of success,” he said, "and more championships.”

Staff writer Susan Simpson contributed to this report.

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