Castiglione has served on several NCAA committees and been president of the National Athletic Directors Association. He also has a long history with the conference. Castiglione was the athletic director at Missouri before coming to OU.

He’s far from the only candidate.

Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson, Conference USA commissioner, and OU graduate, Britton Banowsky and Big 12 associate commissioner Dan Beebe have also been mentioned a possible successors to Weiberg. Each has ties to the conference and their experience in conference administration is something Castiglione doesn’t possess.

Other names will likely emerge before Weiberg officially vacates the post in mid July.

The Big 12’s board of directors will make the final decision. No timetable has been set for the hiring of a new commissioner.

But few doubt the Sooners’ athletic director should be atop the list of candidates.

John Shinn

366-3536

jshinn@normantranscript.com