Longtime Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione isn’t sure that he likes the word retirement. As he nears the end of his 28-year tenure this spring and moves to the athletic director emeritus role, Castiglione cited other words: “Refocus, repurpose, redirect, recalibrate.”
“There’ll be something, but it won’t be sitting back and doing nothing. I can tell you that,” Castiglione said on the stage at SBJ’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum presented by Learfield in Las Vegas.
“Anything that we’ve done, anything that we’ve been able to accomplish, it’s not because of me,” he said. “It’s because of the great people that we’ve had, the collective efforts of everybody, the great intellect and skill and creativity and innovation that they bring to whatever role it is that they have.”
Castiglione outlined the path that he’s used for success at Oklahoma and his other stops as “setting a culture, being disciplined around it, and then hiring and retaining people who are absolutely willing to live it, not be just part of it, but live it.”
Among other topics he addressed:
Inflection point of your career: I probably would go back to when I realized the role of an athletic director is much different than the image I had of one when I was coming up. I saw the need for leaders to be more focused on revenue generation and building a broader sports program, leaning into Title IX instead of fighting it, and how we were purposing programs and what they need in terms of resources and the world of hiring coaches was changing. You had more control over how you can create and level set of funding around all of those kind of decisions. That was the moment I realized that this job was going to take a different kind of leadership. … I could look back at certain things, but I just saw the changing role of an AD that was the one thing that changed my focus from not just “what” but “why” you’re doing it and then the strategy to fulfill it.
Advice to leaders to maintain clarity and culture amid the upheaval: Be disciplined. I say we ADs have learned over time that people can generally handle almost anything if you can communicate with them, hopefully in advance. But as you’re going through various challenges, if you communicate with them and help provide the structure, at least the thought of a structure where they can identify with and attach to, that’s an extension of your culture because of how you’re trying to put people in the best position to be successful and listen to them. Making sure that communication isn’t just one way
On sustaining success: Understanding the identity of who we are, what we represent, whether it’s an AD defining it, the president, the board. What’s our DNA or the tradition and culture around an institution? A lot of that has been already set for many years before any of us get there. Understand what that is. Some of it is part you embrace and other parts of it mayb eneed to be changed, but everybody agreeing what’s our identity and then being aligned with the strategy we may put in place to basically trying to be at our best in all areas. It starts there.
On how he built a culture: We really had focus groups, if you will, that met and talked about what defines the best culture for Oklahoma or wherever I was. And then getting all that input going through it. Obviously, you have got to pare it down and being intentional about what they see as our purpose. … It doesn’t mean we have unanimity and agreeing on everything, but we get to a point where everybody says, ‘OK, that’s what I see.’ And then helping guide them to knowing what the world is for us to compete and what it’s going to take.
On what will define success for the next generation of ADs: Everybody has different resources, everybody has different challenges, but you do the best you can with what you have. Control the controllables. …
We are burning through resources faster than they come in sometimes. And being very wise in the area of revenue generation and all the different vehicles that are available for us. …
Understanding how the whole process of recruiting is changing for us, and we’ve leaned into that heavily at Oklahoma about 18 months or so ago with developing a process to create a general manager. We created a whole personnel department that really looks much like a professional team’s personnel department. …
ADs have got to be willing to look at new models that can help us manage the world going forward, still be RevGen, still be relational, still have the ability to hire and retain great coaches and as well as your staff, still connect with stakeholders. We’re in a world that we’re going to constantly have to pivot and be flexible, and that’s the nature of our business right now.
On his legacy: A lot of people ask about what a legacy is, and it’s not really my legacy or what I have done. Certainly, I’ve been fortunate to be involved in things and maybe influenced change that has helped our industry and all of that. … There are a lot of people in this room and a lot of people I’ve run into in the hallways or will tonight at dinners, if I have a legacy, it’s in them. A long time ago, I learned that if I was ever going to be successful, it was how I could help others be successful (SBJ).
