Roger Denny’s unusual path made him perfect candidate to become Oklahoma’s athletic director

By Canadian Press on January 28, 2026.

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Decades ago, Roger Denny’s mother considered it inevitable that her gifted son someday would become an athletic director at a major college program.

Back in 2005, the man who eventually would take over at Oklahoma was a first-year law student at Saint Louis University attending the Final Four. Denny grew up in North Carolina and was a Tar Heels fan, so he took advantage of the national title game between Illinois and North Carolina being in town.

As Denny tells it, the family walked into the Edward Jones Dome and encountered then-North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour.

His mom, Debi, seized the moment.

“My mom, God bless her, told Dick Baddour in that moment that I was going to have his job some day,” Denny said.

It didn’t happen exactly as mom predicted, but she was right about one thing for certain — her son was going places. With Debi in the crowd, Denny was announced Wednesday as Oklahoma’s 12th athletic director.

Denny, 43, spent 15 years as a practicing corporate attorney with a focus on executive compensation, tax, corporate finance and licensing. Even as his success grew, he kept athletics in the back of his mind.

“I spent 15 years training for this job without knowing I was training for it,” he said. “I loved the practice of law. I love my partners, loved what I was doing, but … I never felt the fulfillment or satisfaction. No matter how many boxes I checked or what I accomplished, I just always knew college sports was where I wanted to be.”

Denny spent the past 4 1/2 years in the Illinois athletic department. As deputy athletic director, he was in charge of business operations for the athletic department and the administrator for the Illinois football program.

Oklahoma special advisor Randall Stephenson said Denny’s path made him a perfect fit for the job description.

“As you step back and look at that, you see this is a very different kind of individual that we’re looking for to come in and fill this role,” Stephenson said. “And so therefore, we said we probably need to take a very different approach on how we go about finding this individual.”

As the college sports landscape changed, his skill set began to match up with his mother’s vision. Now, Denny is taking over one of the nation’s elite athletic programs. The Sooners won 26 national championships under Joe Castiglione, whose tenure began in 1998.

Denny likes the challenge of trying to maintain that success in a new environment as he works with Oklahoma president Joseph Harroz Jr.

“When you hear the university president use the word dynasty, that’s when you get really excited, and that’s what we’re here for,” he said.

Now that he has found his dream job in a roundabout way, Denny feels he can find that fulfillment at an ideal place.

“I’ve been asked a few times why Oklahoma?” he said. “To me, that’s the easiest question I’ll get all day. It’s Oklahoma. … there’s only one of these.”

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Cliff Brunt, The Associated Press