In an email, OU athletic director Joe Castiglione announced to OU donors and fans that former AT&T chief executive officer Randall Stephenson has been named as Executive Advisor to the President and the Athletics Director.
Stephenson — who has refused compensation — will help the Sooners restructure the athletics budget as the university prepares for the implementation of a revenue-sharing model with student-athletes.
Stephenson, an OU alumnus, will also will "make recommendations for funding player compensation" and offer insights into pioneering governance models and athletics structures that will closely resemble professional sports organizations.
"Randall, a proud OU alumnus, has proven the ability to navigate major industries through significant disruption, like college athletics faces now," Castiglione said in an email. "He served as chairman and CEO of AT&T from 2007-2020 and led the Fortune Five company through tectonic changes in multiple sectors. He also led and oversaw many new approaches to sports programming, media rights, and sponsorships
"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, where he focused significantly on the operational challenges of the tour and helped make significant professional, complex executive decisions."
The announcement comes as the Sooners prepare for significant changes to collegiate sports in the coming months.
The changes center around the preliminary settlement for the House vs. NCAA class-action lawsuit, which was approved in October. The settlement is a giant step forward towards moving collegiate sports to a revenue-sharing model. A resolution is expected in the coming weeks.
Under the approval, schools will have the ability to share up to $22 million with student-athletes while also creating bigger roster caps in most sports and open the door to scholarships for all rostered players.
Castiglione estimates that the settlement would mean an additional baseline total of approximately $20.5 million in annual costs.
"Notwithstanding these substantial new financial commitments to our student-athletes, OU Athletics remains steadfast in our commitment to all 21 of our sports and to proudly remain one of the few collegiate athletics programs that is economically self-sustaining, resulting in no student or public dollars contributing to the athletics enterprise," Castiglione said. "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 athletics scholarships and instead set roster sizes for each sport."
The restructuring for Oklahoma includes a more "expansive General 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."
The full email can be read here.
