Joe Castiglione never needed a fancy goodbye. Just a handshake, a look, and maybe one last championship banner from the rafters. But after 27 legendary years of building Oklahoma into a national powerhouse, he finally gave his nod to ride off into the sunset. Well, not quite. He’ll still stick around until 2028 as emeritus AD. But it’s clear, the Joe C. era is winding down. So what’s next for the Sooners?

Plans are already in motion. On August 6, Pete Thamel made a report on Oklahoma’s move which is the establishment of a 12-member search committee to find its next athletic director. Spearheading that operation is none other than Randall Stephenson who is the university’s current Chair of Football. But it’s an NFL exec that’s turning heads because of his former success in OU’s GM hire. “Oklahoma has brought on The Athlete Group and former Philadelphia Eagles executive Jake Rosenberg to assist in its athletic director search,” he wrote on X. “Rosenberg played a key role in the hiring of general manager Jim Nagy.” This is the same Rosenberg who helped build playoff-contending rosters in Philly and had a hand in pulling Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl to Norman. 

The next AD hire is more of a blueprint than just a “who’s next” search. Oklahoma isn’t just replacing a legend in Joe C. It’s also trying to bottle up the success that Jim Nagy, the architect behind Oklahoma’s recent recruiting heat wave, has already sparked. Take Cal transfer Jadyn Ott, arguably the best RB in the 2025 class. OU snagged him with ease. Add a scorching two-month streak where they won nearly every 4-star battle they entered, and you get the sense that the GM’s NFL-style front office structure is starting to pay dividends. 

Joe Castiglione’s retirement news wasn’t sudden. It was strategic with a year-long runway, an advisory role during the search, and a promise to stay out of picking his successor. All designed to set the Sooners up for a seamless handoff. “I want to do what’s right for everyone involved. That’s just the way I am,” he said. “Helping facilitate a smooth transition over this upcoming academic year, I wanted to give the university plenty of runway to facilitate a search as I enter my final year as AD.” And that’s the context where Jake Rosenberg steps in again. As the guy who helped get Jim Nagy in the door, he is being trusted with the future of the entire athletic department. But will the Sooners go for flash, familiarity, or both?

Who’s the next potential Oklahoma AD?

When you start connecting the dots, one name screams front-runner louder than the rest of the potential candidates. Zac Selmon. He’s currently AD at Mississippi State and checks every box. He has Oklahoma bloodlines as the son of Sooner legend Dewey Selmon and nephew of NFL Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon. He also has familiarity with the current OU AD as he spent eight years under Joe Castiglione, rising through the ranks. 

Joe C. once told The Oklahoman, “From the day we hired him as a graduate assistant and then hired him full time in our development office, we could see Zac would be a rising star in our profession.” It should not come as a surprise as Oklahoma loves to hire from within its football family. In fact, 10 of OU’s 11 athletic directors before Joe C. were either former players or coaches. Joe Castiglione was the lone outsider and arguably the greatest of them all. Now, the question becomes whether the Sooners return to tradition with Zac Selmon or pivot toward a fresh path.

Names like Pittsburgh’s Allen Greene and Tennessee’s Ryan Alpert are floating around, but Selmon is the frontrunner, and he fits both the past and the future. Oklahoma is trying to future-proof the program with an NFL-grade process. And that is how you build a dynasty in the NIL, transfer portal, and Power Four era.