Sources: Oklahoma AD Castiglione to retire from full-time role - ESPN

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione will retire from his full-time role during the upcoming school year, bringing an end to the longest-tenured run for a current AD in major college sports, sources told ESPN.

Upon the hiring of his successor, according to sources, Castiglione will stay on as athletic director emeritus.

Castiglione is entering his 28th year at Oklahoma, a span that has seen 26 national titles, 117 league titles and the Sooners' move from the Big 12 to the SEC. The timing of the announcement prior to this season, sources said, will give Oklahoma officials adequate runway to hire a replacement during the upcoming school year. The timing of the move will allow OU to make a hire in the upcoming months and transition with Castiglione on campus.

Castiglione, 67, initiated the conversation about his retirement with school officials nearly a month ago, per sources, and they landed on this plan together.

That job would allow Castiglione to continue to work on special projects at the university, as he intends to live locally.

In his nearly three decades at Oklahoma, he earned a reputation as one of the industry's most respected leaders. He won Athletic Director of the Year by Sports Business Journal in 2009 and shared the award in 2018. He also won the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics award for the nation's top athletic director in 2000 and 2018.

One remarkable statistic perhaps best sums up his impact on the college athletics industry: In his time at Oklahoma and Missouri, 32 of Castiglione's employees have gone on to become athletic directors or commissioners.

Castiglione spent five seasons as the athletic director at Missouri before arriving in Norman in July 1998. He hired Bob