UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

For a man running the athletic department of Texas’ sworn enemy, Joe Castiglione has been surprisingly reliable as a Longhorns ally. He befriended former UT athletic director DeLoss Dodds at the inception of the Big 12, and they stuck together even after Castiglione took over at Oklahoma in 1998. When the mayhem of realignment threatened to tear the conference apart, the rivals’ commitment to each other helped preserve it. So even though his boss, OU president David Boren, made news this week with a not-so-subtle insinuation the Longhorn Network is holding the Big 12 back, it wasn’t a shock to hear Castiglione strike a more hopeful, conciliatory tone. -Tom Reel, houstonchronicle.com– Read More