Email: Oklahoma Restructuring the Budget for Coming Changes in College Football

Randall Stephenson, former chairman and CEO at AT&T and a longtime Sooners donor, will serve as OU's new Executive Advisor to the president and AD.

Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione / NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

Joe Castiglione and the University of Oklahoma are changing the way the Sooners do business.

Castiglione on Tuesday announced that Randall Stephenson, a former chairman and CEO at AT&T and a long-time supporter of OU athletics, has been engaged by the school to take over a newly created position Castiglione calls Executive Advisor to the President and Athletic Director.

In an email Castiglione sent to the fan base, he said Stephenson "has refused compensation" for the new role and "will help guide us into restructuring our budget for this new world of college sports and into developing a football structure with elements similar to professional sports teams.

"This includes building out a more expansive Generan Manager function and developing a dynamic model that will allow OU Football to become a national gold standard around talent acquisition, portal management and player development."

This is part of OU's ongoing response to the continuing evolution of college football, which will soon include a revenue sharing model with the student-athletes that is expected so compensate them beginning at around $20-22 million a year -- Castilgione said in the email the "baseline total" would be approximately $20.5 million -- all from the university.

"Now, more than ever, we are focused on how we can adapt to the current envrionment in ways that enables us to win at the highest level in all our programs.

"College athletics remains unique, but adaptations that draw upon the professional model are necessary to compete at the highest level," Castiglione said in the email.

OU's football General Manager is former Sooners linebacker Curtis Lofton, who moved from co-director of Brent Venables' SOUL Mission to GM last year. Stephenson is expected to work closely with that position.

Stephenson has extensive experience in the realm of sports business. He served on the policy board for the PGA Tour from 2012-23, focusing on the operational challenges of the tour.

Helming AT&T from 2007-20, he shepherded "the Fourtune Five company through tectonic changes in multiple sectors," Castiglione said in the email.

Among his company's innovations in sports programming, media rights and sponsorships, AT&T pioneered NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV, the NFL Red Zone, as well as the NBA on TNT, MLB Playoffs and NCAA March Madness on Turner Networks. Under Stephenson, AT&T was a co-sponsor of the College Football Playoff, AT&T Stadium, and golfers Jordan Spieth, Tiger Woods and others.

Stephenson, 64, an OU alumnus and Oklahoma City native, also delivered the 2023 commencement speech at his alma mater.

"Randall ... has proven the ability to navigate major industries through significant disruption, like college athletics faces now," Castiglione said.

In addition to open transferring via the NCAA Transfer Portal and continually amorphous rules regarding Name, Image and Likeness earning opportunities, schools will soon be on the hook for actually paying their athletes a share of their annual revenue, thanks to the coming settlement from the House v. NCAA class-action lawsuit.

"We are prepared to share the maximum allowable revenues with our athletes," Castiglione said in the email.

"Our expectation, once the settlement is approved, is that we will be offering substantially more aid to our student-athletes because the proposed settlement would eliminate limits for athletic scholarships and instead set roster sizes for each sport. An additional impact of the settlement will be the contributions to to funding the backpay financial damages required by the House settlement. I am confident we are ready to meet these challenges.

"Our move to the SEC lands us in undoubtedly the most competitive conference in college athletics – a platform we have sought for all our student-athletes and programs to shine, and for our university to tell its story on a broader stage. Membership in the SEC also puts us in a much stronger financial position. Part of our financial planning will redeploy select resources to meet new demands, and we also will continue to invest in models that harness the force of Sooner Athletics to drive greater revenues and keep us on our fixed course of fielding winning programs. We are actively pursuing financial strategies to underwrite the increased expenses, aggressively exploring all new revenue-generation opportunities, and continuing to build on the generosity of our passionate donors, supporters, and fans. 

"As part of Randall's work," Castiglione said, "he will also make recommendations for funding player compensation and offer insights into pioneering governance models and athletics structures that will set up OU Athletics for success far into the future.

If finalized this spring, theHousesettlement will not solve the complexities of the current open transfer portal system or other open legal questions related to college athletics. For now, these are challenges that still require solving. However, we are constantly mindful of our role as stewards of a significant and distinct piece of the Oklahoman and American culture of college athletics. Change is constant, and we will always rise to meet new challenges so that we sustain our championship excellence. We are steadfast in our dedication to our student-athletes, our commitment to providing them with a life-changing first-class education, our promise to maintain the tradition of exciting and competitive athletics found at OU, and our role in molding young adults into amazing human beings who proudly take us with them in their new ventures.