Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione announced in an email sent to donors and fans on Tuesday afternoon that Randall Stephenson will serve as an Executive Advisor to the President and Athletics Director.
In the email, Castiglione confirmed that OU is, “prepared to share the maximum allowable revenues with our athletes,” with the baseline total of approximately $20.5 million in additional, annual costs for the program.
As the university prepares for the House vs. NCAA class action lawsuit, Stephenson, who is an alumnus and former CEO of AT&T, is known for pioneering advancements in sports programming, sponsorships and media rights, and will help guide the athletics department through substantial changes in his new role.
According to the email, key responsibilities include restructuring the athletics budget, developing a professional-style model for OU Football and exploring innovative approaches to player compensation and governance. Stephenson will also assist in building an expanded General Manager function for the football program, focusing on talent acquisition, portal management and player development.
"In addition to his time at AT&T, Randall brings much knowledge in sports policy and business, having served on the policy board for the PGA Tour from 2012-2023 during a time of considerable change surrounding men’s professional golf,” Castiglione said in the email. “Where he focused significantly on the operational challenges of the tour and helped make significant professional, complex executive decisions.”
Stephenson refused compensation for his new role.
“He 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,” Castiglione said. “This includes building out a more expansive general manager function and developing a dynamic model that will allow OU football to become a national gold-standard.”
This story was edited by Gracie Rawlings.
