Oklahoma's Joe Castiglione Voted Country's Top AD By Sports Illustrated

The University of Oklahoma's Joe Castiglione has been voted the country's top Athletic Director through an anonymous survey by Sports Illustrated. 

The survey was given to sports media professionals and athletic directors across the country. The two groups were asked to vote on the following two questions: 

What factors determine how effective these folks are at their jobs? Who are the best three ADs in the business?

Castiglione was voted the top athletic director by the media and by athletic directors alike. The media evaluated athletic directors on the following factors: hiring and retaining coaches/staff, fundraising, accessibility/communication, crisis management, culture building, and innovation/creativity. The media described Castiglione as follows:

"Good outward reputation and has both maintained and built within the department, with a good number of sports finding consistent success. Seems to be a quality fund-raiser as well—especially important with the resources available at their in-state rival school."

According to athletic directors, the most important criteria for an AD included: culture building, hiring and retaining coaches/staff, fundraising, and crisis management. The country's ADs described Castliglione as follows: 

“I don’t know anybody that says a bad word about Joe Castiglione and the amount of success they’ve had one and off the field, and what they’ve done there since he’s been there is remarkable."

Check out the full ranking by Sports Illustrated here.