Altius Sports Partners, Oklahoma expand relationship to athlete services division

Before Casey Schwab helped start Altius Sports in 2020, he had a long lunch with Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione. Eating outside in Norman in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic – before anyone really knew how to combat the virus – the former vice president of business and legal affairs at the NFL Players Inc. was exploring what would soon become his startup.

Schwab had been traveling and meeting with a range of college sports leaders, trying to figure out what issues needed to be addressed. The lunch actually ran long. Not necessarily because the two plunged into one topic, but because Castiglione continued to produce new ideas.

That meeting still sticks with Schwab.

Now a founding partner and CEO of Altius, Schwab’s firm started working with schools to educate athletes and athletic departments on NIL issues. The framework evolved last summer, placing a general manager inside athletic departments to assist with name, image and likeness.

Oklahoma and Altius first entered into a partnership in March 2022. The relationship continued to grow, now culminating in an athlete services division launching Thursday. The three-person team – two employed by Altius and one by OU – will work directly with athletes to assist in how to fulfill NIL agreements, create content and grow their media presence, while still providing education to athletes.

Multiple athletic departments have recently built out their NIL departments, but Castiglione and Schwab view this as the start of a division that can grow with the next era of college sports.

“I think the unique thing about Joe is that he has both the historical knowledge. He’s been around a long time, and I don’t say to age him, and a lot of people who have been around a long time in any industry, but in college sports, they’re not ideas people,” Schwab told On3. “They’re not looking forward, they’re looking backward. And Joe is looking forwards at what the future is going to be, not saying, ‘I wish it would stay like it’s always been.'”

Oklahoma, Altius addressing multiple NIL needs

Altius Sports Partners advises more than 30 schools, including nearly half of the Power Five. It has general managers at 10 schools and continues to grow.

The athlete services division is the first to have a three-person staff. Toby Baldwin has been on Oklahoma’s staff since May 2022 as the director of athletics for NIL and operational advancement. He will continue to work in that role. One of the perks of keeping Baldwin on OU’s staff is he will be able to meet with recruits directly.

“We certainly believe it will in the long run,” said Castiglione when asked about the division being attractive to recruits. “Because it will continue to help better define our story around opportunities for athletes utilizing their brand. Helping illustrate what others before them have done.”

An Altius executive general manager is also being brought into the fold. The position will entail oversight of current and future NIL initiatives at OU, while working on personal branding strategy with athletes. Castiglione and Schwab also see the role as someone who can speak on athletes’ behalf in an advocacy role when it comes to NIL services needed.

The third staff member will be an Altius athlete revenue analyst, focused on analyzing and identifying revenue streams for athletes. It’s a first-of-its-kind position for college athletes. Supporting the executive general manager, the revenue analyst will be a liaison between OU coaches and stakeholders.

“This particular space is evolving as we speak,” Castiglione said. “It seems like there’s something new every day. And I think the most important part is that we’re trying to understand what we can do in a space that hasn’t really had any clear regulations from the outset. There have been interpretations. There are certain guidelines. But we’re all trying to operate within NCAA rules and state laws and do things the right way, of course. We’re trying to also help our athletes adjust and grow, in this new age. So anytime we can do something that supports our athletes, we’re going to try to be as creative as possible to help them be the best version of themselves.”

Setting table for next era of college sports

Now in his 26th year as Oklahoma’s athletic director, Castiglione has had to make some major decisions in his tenure. He’s had to go find a new head football coach after Lincoln Riley left for USC. And he’s had to guide the Sooners into the NIL Era.

Next summer, the school enters the SEC with Texas. In most of the moves he has made, he’s been able to make well-informed rulings. NIL has not allowed for the most data to be available, with the space now only in its third year.

Altius has played a significant role in guiding OU in the area. He’s hoping this will keep the Sooners ahead of whatever comes next in college sports.

“We have to make a lot of decisions in a compressed timeframe with very little industry data available,” Castiglione said. “We’re just now starting to see some data develop that will be helpful in the long run. But early on, there wasn’t anything available other than what one institution could learn from another institution and what the people who were putting collectives together were trying to do to be creative in their own way.

“So we’ve had an ongoing partnership with Altius since March of ‘22 and this is something we’ve been talking about how we can do more to create opportunities. It’s a big step, but it’s not the only step.”

Earlier this week, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh became the first FBS head coach to publicly vouch for revenue sharing and call out the NCAA’s current framework. It could just be the start of more and more stakeholders coming for change.

Many across the college sports landscape have long said NIL was only the start. Revenue sharing and the long march towards possible athlete employee status are coming, too. The latest round of conference realignment only speeds it up.

The athlete services division could be something every athletic department in the country aims to add in the near future.

“I don’t necessarily look at it as like an arms race, like the facilities arms race,” Schwab said. “I look at it more like athletic directors. Now is a moment in time to take a step back and to have two whiteboards in front of you. The first one is your current organizational structure and budget. How you run your business today. And the second one is, what is the ideal structure in 2023? Because it’s different than it would have been three years ago, if not 10 years ago.

“Then you take those two, you take the current state, and then you take the ideal state, and you say, ‘Ok, what steps can we make today to get closer to the ideal state?’ And as a result of that, I do think, athletic departments are going to be pouring more resources into athlete services whether it be expanding their commercial opportunities off the field, like NIL or personal branding, or education or mental health, or education around sports betting, and gambling, which is going to become more and more important.

“Or in the future state, if college athletes or a subset of college athletes are paid either a bigger stipend to play or they’re paid a salary and they’re employees, there’s going to need to be additional services provided to these athletes. It’s just a fact.”