If Castiglione's alma mater calls, will he answer?
Published: 7/7/2010 10:08 PM
Last Modified: 7/7/2010 10:08 PM
First of all, let's give it up to the genius who named the Maryland fans website "Testudo Times." That is classic.
And it is on Testudo Times where you'll find Joe Castiglione mentioned as a candidate to replace Debbie Yow, the Maryland athletic director who is leaving to become AD at North Carolina State.
Why would Castiglione leave Oklahoma to take over the Terrapins? Let's let Ben Broman of the Testudo Times (I can't write that enough) answer that question:
"He graduated from Maryland in '79 and was a walk-on on the football team... In 2007, UMD honored him with the Distinguished Alumnus Award, obviously hoping to curry favor for the job opening in three years. Oh, and by the way, he happens to be a cousin to Maryland's current interim AD.
"Returning to his alma mater and working with his family sounds pretty good, at least to me."
I guess it could sound pretty good to Castiglione. But I'm thinking there are three reasons why his deal at OU sounds better...
1, He is part of a university president/athletic director/head football coach partnership that is unique in bigtime college athletics.
2, Twelve years have left him rooted, comfortably, in Norman with a happy family. He is like Stoops in that regard.
3, The recent realignment tango taught us that football means everything to the health and stability of a college athletic department. Maryland is a terrific school with a lot going for it in sports. Football, alas, is not one of those things. Not consistently anyway.
The Terps would be crazy not to ask Castilgione to come home. Just as Castiglione would be crazy to take them up on their offer.
Besides, as Broman pointed out on Testudo Times: "Good luck getting a guy with a massive contract buy-out, a huge budget, and in a relatively small media market out to Maryland, a school with a much smaller budget and a ton of media scrutiny. Oh, and can Maryland's broken budget pay for his massive buy-out? Doubtful."
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
