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Why OU athletic director Joe Castiglione feels Sooners are prepared for House settlement
ARDMORE — Joe Castiglione was settling into his car after dinner last Friday in Kansas City when his son delivered a message.
'It just broke,' Joe Castiglione Jr. said to his dad.
'What broke?' the elder Castiglione asked.
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'The judge's decision,' Castiglione Jr. told him.
Last Friday evening was a 'remember where you were' moment for plenty of people involved in college athletics.
The decision was the approval of The House vs. NCAA settlement, which paves the way for schools to pay athletes directly.
'We feel very prepared,' Castiglione said. 'That being said, it's still an ever-evolving landscape in college athletics. … It's a very different world moving forward.'
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OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. was having a beer — one Guinness, he noted — in New York City as he worked to get his son settled into an internship there.
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At Thursday's meeting of the OU Board of Regents at the Noble Research Institute, Harroz called the settlement's approval a 'tectonic' shift for college athletics, while Castiglione called it 'an entirely new frontier.'
'One that we are really now prepared to launch into and really serve our athletes properly,' Castiglione said.
Schools can start direct payment to athletes July 1, with each school being able to pay approximately $20.5 million per school initially and increasing every year.
'That's not very far from now, so we're going to be really busy between now and then,' Harroz said. 'And we're going to see …. Will the A4 conferences put in place the rules necessary for this settlement to hold and for college athletics to be preserved? That's what's at stake right now.'
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Castiglione has said OU would pay out the full revenue-sharing amount.
Castiglione said those payments would be made to athletes in six sports — football, men's and women's basketball, women's gymnastics, softball and baseball. The percentage breakdown for those has not been finalized, but Castiglione and Harroz said the school would release the percentages by sport once they were.
Castiglione noted that they would be in line with other SEC programs, some of which have announced their split percentages.
The payment to former athletes will be split 75% to football, 15% for men's basketball, 5% for women's basketball and 5% for other sports.
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OU athletic director Joe Castiglione has said the Sooners would pay out the full revenue-sharing amount to six sports.
The challenge to the settlement on the grounds it violates Title IX law will pause the NCAA's plan to pay former athletes, but won't slow down payment to current athletes.
'I feel like in a very uncertain world, we gained some certainty last Friday night with the House settlement coming down,' Harroz said. 'Now it's up to us in the conferences to enforce it and make it stick.
'The greatest burden and obligation for us in the conferences right now is to make the House settlement be functional and to not engage in cheating around it.'
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Castiglione, who was in Kansas City for his niece's wedding, said after he returned to his hotel after his brisket dinner at Joe's Kansas City BBQ that he spent a couple hours on the phone making sure the plans the department had in place in anticipation of the settlement were being put into motion.
'We had already had many aspects of this already put in place to launch at any time,' Castiglione said. 'We were all aware that the decision could come at any time, just making sure everything could be implemented as we planned.'
Harroz said the move to the SEC, which officially happened nearly a year ago, put the department in a much better position to reach its two primary objectives — continue operating without using student or state money to fund the athletic department and competing for and winning championships.
'The level of confidence we can meet these marks is high,' Harroz said.
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In May, the school announced a 5% cut of full-time athletic department employees, though Castiglione and Harroz categorized those moves as a redistribution of resources.
Castiglione said he was hopeful further cuts wouldn't be necessary, but noted the landscape would continue to shift.
'I don't want to try to speculate how the ecosystem's going to continue to evolve,' Castiglione said. 'It's safe to say without a permanent structure it's impossible to speculate with any true accuracy. But suffice to say, we haven't seen the last of the economic shifts. What our strategy has been is to continue to fund the sports we sponsor. It starts there. …
'We're still self-sustaining. It's been tougher, no doubt about it.'
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, center, talks with OU President Joseph Harroz Jr., left, and OU athletic director Joe Castiglione after a press conference before a celebration for OU joining the Southeastern Conference in Norman, Okla., Monday, July 1, 2024.
OU didn't receive a full revenue share percentage in its first year in the SEC but will receive a full share beginning this fiscal year, bringing an estimated additional $32 million in revenue.
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Harroz said the school was committed to supporting women's sports as a whole and other sports that aren't a part of the revenue-sharing model.
'We're also able to support women's sports and all the Olympic sports,' Harroz said. 'That's the essence of college athletics.'
There figures to be plenty of other changes coming to college athletics, both said.
'House settles a lot,' Harroz said. 'House doesn't settle everything. There will be additional challenges, but now it's up to the conferences to step and the individual schools not to act in short-term best interest to try to gain an advantage for one year but actually live into it.'
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Also at the meeting, the regents approved several contracts and contract changes:
New contracts
Lake Dawson, senior assistant general manager for football, two-year contract at $290,000 annually
Jonathan Gress, head athletic trainer for football, two-year contract at $210,000 annually.
Pauline Love, women's basketball assistant, one-year contract at $230,000 annually.
Taylor Redd, assistant general manager for football, two-year contract at $230,000 annually.
Justin Scott, men's basketball assistant, one-year contract at $385,000 annually.
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Revised contracts
Lou Ball, women's gymnastics assistant, raised $6,750 annually to $246,000 annually.
Jennie Baranczyk, women's basketball coach, extended through June 30, 2031.
Nicholas Crowell, men's tennis coach, raised $5,600 annually to $195,600 per year.
Clay Custer, men's basketball assistant, extended through June 30, 2026, and raised $10,000 to $295,000 annually.
Veronique Drouin-Luttrell, women's golf coach, raised $5,000 annually to $165,000 annually.
Shannon Gage, women's basketball assistant, raised $6,000 to $206,000 annually.
Thomas Haley, women's gymnastics assistant, raised $6,750 to $246,000 annually.
Ryan Humphrey, men's basketball assistant, raised $14,000 to $480,000 annually.
Ryan Hybl, men's golf coach, extended through June 30, 2029.
K.J. Kindler, women's gymnastics coach, extended through June 30, 2032.
Brock Morris, men's basketball assistant, title changed to Assistant Coach/Sports Professional III from Assistant Coach/Sports Professional II and given a contract of $425,000 annually.
Michael Neal, women's basketball assistant, extended through June 30, 2026, and increased $5,000 to $145,000 annually.
Sarah Trowbridge, women's rowing coach, extended through June 30, 2029, and raised $7,000 to $210,000 annually.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU AD Joe Castiglione feels Sooners are prepared for House settlement
