Oklahoma football will now run like an NFL organization

Gabe Ikard
@GabeIkard

Oklahoma football will now run like an NFL organization


Gabe Ikard
@GabeIkard
·18m

Randall Stephenson will essentially serve the role of NFL team president. He’ll oversee the GM, scouting staff, sports medicine, sports science & S&C. It will allow OU’s coaches to focus on football & player development.

We’ll go more into detail on Thursday’s @OK_Breakdown
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Dear Sooner Family –

As you are well aware, college athletics has been in the midst of vast transformation in the past several years, most of which has centered around the professionalization of football. In the spirit of our 130-year tradition of excellence in OU Athletics, we will continue to be at the forefront of these changes, remaining innovative, nimble, and ready to leverage the opportunity offered by both our entry into the SEC and the current collegiate athletics landscape. Now, more than ever, we are focused on how we can adapt to the current environment in ways that enable us to win at the highest level in all our programs. As we continue to evaluate and plan, I’d like to take this moment to inform you on where we are currently and how we plan to meet this moment to best position OU’s championship-caliber athletics programs for success.

Under the terms of the preliminary settlement for the House vs. NCAA class action lawsuit, we will be sharing revenue with many OU student-athletes. We are prepared to share the maximum allowable revenues with our athletes. Under the settlement, this means a baseline total of approximately $20.5 million in additional, annual costs for OU Athletics.

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. 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. An additional impact of the settlement will be the contributions to funding the backpay financial damages required by the House settlement. I am confident we are ready to meet these challenges.

Our move to the SEC lands us in undoubtedly the most competitive conference in college athletics – a platform we have sought for all our student-athletes and programs to shine, and for our university to tell its story on a broader stage. Membership in the SEC also puts us in a much stronger financial position. Part of our financial planning will redeploy select resources to meet new demands, and we also will continue to invest in models that harness the force of Sooner Athletics to drive greater revenues and keep us on our fixed course of fielding winning programs. We are actively pursuing financial strategies to underwrite the increased expenses, aggressively exploring all new revenue-generation opportunities, and continuing to build on the generosity of our passionate donors, supporters, and fans.

The most successful major college athletics programs will be dynamic and innovative and draw from resources outside of those traditionally accessed in amateur athletics. To that end, we are engaging long-time OU friend and supporter, Randall Stephenson, to help counsel and guide our efforts. Randall, a proud OU alumnus, has proven the ability to navigate major industries through significant disruption, like college athletics faces now. 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. Under his leadership, AT&T and its subsidiaries, working with its media partners, changed how America engaged with many of the world’s premier sports brands, including pioneering programming such as the NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV, the NFL Red Zone, NBA on TNT, MLB Playoffs, and NCAA March Madness on Turner networks. With Randall’s direction, AT&T executed sponsorships of some of America’s most iconic events, venues, and athletes, including The College Football Playoff, AT&T Stadium, Jordan Spieth, and Tiger Woods.

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. He also served as the 37th President of the Boy Scouts of America from 2016-2018.

Randall, who has refused compensation, will serve as Executive Advisor to the President and the Athletics Director, working closely with President Harroz, Coach Venables, the athletics department, and me. He will help guide us into restructuring our budget for this new world of college sports and into developing a football structure with elements similar to professional sports teams. This includes building out 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. College athletics remains unique, but adaptations that draw upon the professional model are necessary to compete at the highest level. As part of Randall’s work, he also will make recommendations for funding player compensation and offer insights into pioneering governance models and athletics structures that will set up OU Athletics for success far into the future.

If finalized this spring, the House settlement will not solve the complexities of the current open transfer portal system or other open legal questions related to college athletics. For now, these are challenges that still require solving. However, we are constantly mindful of our role as stewards of a significant and distinct piece of the Oklahoman and American culture of college athletics. Change is constant, and we will always rise to meet new challenges so that we sustain our championship excellence. We are steadfast in our dedication to our student-athletes, our commitment to providing them with a life-changing first-class education, our promise to maintain the tradition of exciting and competitive athletics found at OU, and our role in molding young adults into amazing human beings who proudly take us with them in their new ventures.

Thank you, as always, for your support of our programs and student-athletes. We could not do what we do without your continued investment in us. You help us create Sooner Magic every day.

Boomer!

Sooner Sports LINK