Report: Oklahoma Will Work Closely With Former NFL Executive to Prepare for Impending Changes

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione is continuously working to stay ahead of the coming changes to college athletics. 

Thursday morning, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that OU is partnering with a high-profile name in football to prepare for revenue sharing with athletes. 

“University of Oklahoma Athletic Department will work with former Eagles executive [Jake Rosenberg] and his consulting firm [The Athlete Group] to advise on their impeding transition to the ‘salary cap’ era of college athletics, per sources,” Schefter said in a statement on X. “Those around the sport consider it to be a progressive move to partner with someone who has been a highly-respected executive in the NFL, and one of the Eagles GM Howie Roseman’s closest advisors.”

The move comes as the massive settlement in the House v. NCAA case could potentially be accepted and finalized next week. 

In total, an expected $2.77 billion will be paid out between the NCAA and various conferences in damages to former athletes. 

As a result of the settlement, the door will be open to revenue sharing, where schools can reportedly opt-in to sharing over $20 million per year with student athletes. 

Last week, TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati said the Horned Frogs would be sharing the maximum amount of revenue with players, a move that will likely be mirrored by other schools as the next wave of student athlete empowerment sweeps across collegiate athletics. 

Oklahoma will be no different in trying to stay ahead of the curve and remain competitive on the national stage. 

Last month, the OU Board of Regents approved a new role for former Sooner Curtis Lofton as the general manager of the Oklahoma football team. 

The new role will encompass many different parts of the program, including roster management from both a recruiting perspective as well as with Name, Image and Likeness and the future potential for revenue distributions to athletes.

Last March, OU head coach Brent Venables lined out his vision for the new job that many college football programs are filling. 

“I think we'd be naive if we didn't look at the change that's going on in college football, both currently and the landscape,” he said. “The toothpaste is definitely out of the tube, and … you're not putting it back in. So we are always looking at all of our processes, our programs, our support systems on how we can continue to improve and be efficient, be really good at what we're doing.

“I always look at trying to hire people who are smarter than me and to surround myself with really good, intelligent people that have either the experience where you want to go or they have acumen to learn and grow and get better and lead. So we're always looking at ways to get better. There's some restructuring and reorganization that we're looking at doing ... and we've been working on this for 16, 18 months.

“A lot of it's where we feel like college football is going and making sure that we were in a position of strength, we're not reacting and when it does happen. This is going to continue to be just kind of a process and it's — you wish it was a little more congruent, but, you know, it's kind of a piecemeal of what's going on in college football. So we've been working hard and diligently trying to anticipate the things that we do often do programmatically to strengthen us. So that'll be somewhere here in the near future.” 

Oklahoma reinforced the financial strength of the institution as the Sooners head to the Southeastern Conference on Wednesday as well. 

The University of Oklahoma announced that it had broken its previous fundraising record for a fiscal year, raising $334 million in gifts. It topped the previous record of $317 million set in the 2022 fiscal year, OU announced. 

“Year after year, I’m reminded that the outstanding generosity of the OU community can turn our boldest aspirations into reality,” said OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. in a press release. “As we prepare for an era of even greater growth and academic excellence, I'm endlessly grateful to our donors for enabling us to provide essential student support, making a world-class education accessible to all.”