What are the Biggest Challenges Roger Denny Faces Early in Tenure as Oklahoma's AD

Denny takes over for Joe Castiglione at a turbulent time in college athletics, with plenty of challenges ahead

Roger Denny, then a candidate for the Missouri State athletics director job, takes questions at a public forum in Glass Hall in August 2024. Denny will be formally introduced as Oklahoma's athletic director Wednesday. | Nathan Papes/Springfield News-Leader / USA TODAY NETWORK

NORMAN — Roger Denny has his work cut out for him quickly as he takes over for Joe Castiglione as Oklahoma’s athletic director.

Denny, who will be formally introduced into the role at a ceremony Wednesday at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, comes into the role in one of the most tumultuous times in college athletics, and while the Sooners’ football program is in a strong position moving forward, there will be plenty to deal with for the lawyer turned collegiate athletics administrator.

Here are three of the biggest challenges Denny faces early in his tenure:

Navigating the Future of NIL, Play-For-Pay

While Denny comes from the University of Illinois, where he spent the last five years as a deputy athletic director, it’s his pre-Illinois background that made him most qualified for the OU job — and most attractive to the selection committee.

Denny spent nearly 15 years practicing law, with a focus on executive compensation, tax, corporate finance and licensing.

He represented college athletic departments and other sports business, including in collective bargaining.

Denny’s contract negotiation experience figures to serve him well in the changing landscape of college athletics that goes well beyond just Name, Image and Likeness.

The Sooners got off to a relatively slow start in the NIL landscape, but have made up significant ground in the last two years.

Oklahoma can’t afford to play catch-up again, though, especially now that it’s in the SEC.

While Denny won’t need to be in the weeds on every such deal, especially with Jim Nagy’s and Randall Stephenson’s roles with the football program, he will certainly be at the center of discussions for particularly important ones, and can help the department navigate a landscape that figures to continue to get even more complicated in coming years.

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The Future of Men’s Basketball

Men’s basketball doesn’t carry the same weight that it once did among Sooners’ athletics, but it remains behind only football in profitability.

Oklahoma is struggling in that area, though.

The Sooners’ 83-79 loss to Arkansas on Tuesday at Lloyd Noble Center — in front of a crowd made up of a large percentage of Razorbacks fans — stretched their winning streak to seven.

OU hasn’t lost seven consecutive games since a pair of such streaks during the transitional 2016-17 season.

A loss Saturday vs. Texas would give the Sooners their first eight-game losing streak since 2010-11 — Jeff Capel’s last season at the helm.

While rebuilding rosters annually has become the norm in college basketball, holding onto talent has been an issue under Porter Moser.

While no one can fault him for bringing in one-and-done Jeremiah Fears last season, helping the program to its first NCAA Tournament berth under Moser, more troublesome is OU’s inability to hold on to talent — both in roster retention and in-state recruiting.

A coaching change seems inevitable, at least after the season ends, and though that move will be an important one, the Sooners’ issues in the sport go far beyond the coach.

LNC is an aging arena that isn’t conducive to a great atmosphere that the Sooners are looking to replace, and getting big-money donors to pony up both for coaches and to spend on building — and retaining — a talented roster figures to be a high priority.

Denny has experience with high-quality basketball, as Illinois has won three Big Ten titles during his five-years at the school.

Love's Field, opened in 2024, is the crown jewel of college softball. One of Roger Denny's most important early challenges will be maintaining the success of Oklahoma's women's athletics programs. | NATE BILLINGS/FOR THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Keeping Women’s Sports Successful

Among Joe Castiglione’s biggest accomplishments at OU is the success of women’s athletics.

Softball has become one of the flagship sports at the school.

Patty Gasso’s program has become a dominant force, winning eight Women’s College World Series titles during Castiglione’s tenure.

Love’s Field, opened two seasons ago, is the crown jewel of college softball and the sport has risen to unprecedented heights thanks in large part to the exploits of players like Lauren Chamberlain, Jocelyn Alo, Tiare Jennings and more.

Sherri Coale was already in place as the Sooners’ women’s basketball coach when Castiglione arrived, but the program thrived under Coale’s coaching and CAstiglione’s leadership, making 19 consecutive NCAA Tournaments and three Final Fours.

The success has returned under Jennie Baranczyk.

OU women’s gymnastics has also become a dynasty under K.J. Kindler, winning six of the last nine NCAA titles.

But though tickets to OU softball games are hard to come by, the Sooners draw crowds wherever they go, and the revenue deficit is much smaller than it was just a few years ago, the sport hasn’t yet crossed into profitability.

While much of the department seemed slow to adjust to NIL, softball was ahead of things and continues to succeed in the modern landscape.

Though Title IX continues to have a big effect on college athletics, things figure to continue to be more difficult to navigate.

As the lion’s share of money continues to flow into football and the disparity is growing and figures to continue to widen, athletics departments will have to be even more creative in raising revenue in other sports — particularly women’s sports — and Denny will have a significant role in charting the course for the future of those sports at Oklahoma.