Few athletics directors are more established, more respected than Oklahoma's Joe Castiglione. He arrived in 1998, sat through one season of John Blake and promptly hired an untested Florida defensive coordinator named Bob Stoops to take over the Sooners' storied football program.
Aside from football, Oklahoma has reached the Final Four in men's and women's basketball, won two national championships in softball and reached the College World Series in baseball. He's previously served as the chairman of the Big 12's Board of Athletics Directors three times and headed the Division I-A Athletic Directors Association and NACDA. Recently, Castiglione had to turn down overtures to replace Oliver Luck as the Big 12's representative on the College Football Playoff selection committee due to his commitment to the NCAA Division I men's basketball selection committee. I will now refrain from listing all the other leadership positions within college athletics that Castiglione currently holds or has previously held so as to prevent early-onset carpal tunnel syndrome.
So when Castglione talks, especially on the subject of hiring coaches, people listen. Here he was today at an athletics directors' panel during NACDA's annual convention in Orlando:
While we're on the subject of hiring coaches, here are few more nuggets from the panel, courtesy of USA Today's Dan Wolken. This from Memphis AD Tom Bowen:
And Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart: