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College Football Playoff: Sooner AD Joe Castiglione joins CFP selection committee

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - OCTOBER 29: Oklahoma Sooners fans wait to enter the east side of the stadium before the game against the Kansas Jayhawks October 29, 2016 at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - OCTOBER 29: Oklahoma Sooners fans wait to enter the east side of the stadium before the game against the Kansas Jayhawks October 29, 2016 at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
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Oklahoma has been to two of the four College Football Playoffs, and this week Sooner athletic director Joe Castiglione was named to the Playoff selection committee.

Castiglione’s term begins this spring and is for a term of three years. The Sooner AD and vice president for intercollegiate athletics is no stranger to this type of role, having recently completed a five-year term on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, which among other duties is responsible for the selection of teams and their seeding for the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

This is a great honor for the University of Oklahoma, not because of any advantage or benefit it gives to the already widely recognized and respected OU football program, but because it pays tribute to the success of Sooner athletic programs in general and, more importantly, the enormous contributions and personal involvement of Castiglione in many aspects of college athletics.

It was rumored after Bob Stoops announced his retirement in early June last year that he would be an excellent fit for one of the vacant seats that would come up on the CFP selection committee after the season. As it turns out, Stoops won’t be serving on the committee – this this around, at least – but OU will still be represented, and in high style, by Castiglione’s ascendance

In Castiglione’s nearly 20 years at Oklahoma, the Sooners have produced 17 national championships, seven of which have come in the last two years. Before being hired at OU, the Sooner AD was at the University of Missouri for 17 years, the last five of which were in the role of athletic director. Missouri’s great loss became Oklahoma’s enormous gain.

"“These are high integrity people who know and love college football,” said CFP executive director Bill Hancock (himself an OU graduate) about the Castiglione and the other new members of the selection committee in a statement published in the Oklahoma City Oklahoman.“Each of them has built a distinguished career based on diligence and doing things right.”"

The Bobby Dodd Foundation honored Castiglione in 2004 as athletic director of the year, and a survey of media representatives and athletic directors last year by Sports Illustrated named him the nation’s best athletic director, which speaks to the reputation and respect afforded the OU athletic director by his peers as well as members of the media who cover and follow college sports.

Castiglione is one of six new additions to the 13-member CFP selection committee. The other new members are: Ken Hatfield, former head coach at Air Force, Arkansas, Clemson and Rice); Ronnie Lott, former NFL player and Hall of Famer; Todd Stansbury, athletic director at Georgia Tech; retired sports columnist Paola Boivin, and Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin.

In addition to serving in various capacities on NCAA committees, Castiglione also served three terms as chairman of the Big 12 Board of Athletics Directors.

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