Athletic Director Chad Weiberg Sends Letter to Oklahoma State Supporters

STILLWATER – In what has not been a well kept secret that Oklahoma State University Vice President of Athletic Programs and Athletics Director Chad Weiberg had heart surgery recently. Pokes Report has not reported on it as we were told his wishes were to keep it private at the time. On Aug. 23, as the new school year commences and the athletic competition year begins, Weiberg has sent out an email letter to Oklahoma State supporters, football season ticket holders and OSU Posse members. 

The letter, which Weiberg states will be continuing communication on what will likely be a monthly basis, mainly explained the launching of the new revenue sharing with Oklahoma State athletes as created by the settlement on the House vs. NCAA class-action suit. Revenue sharing began at many Division I schools in July. 

Weiberg also detailed his health situation, which turned out to be a fortunate discovery.

A Peronal Note

Sometimes life throws you a curve ball. I got one of those this summer. Through routine testing as part of my annual physical, it was discovered I had an issue with my aorta and aortic valve. It was not blockage related but was something I had likely had for some time and was fortunate it was discovered. After further testing, it was determined I would have open-heart surgery to fix the problem. I had incredible support from my wife, Jodi, and my kids, Ella and Grant. And I received great care at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital under the leadership of a tremendous surgeon, Dr. John Randolph and his team, including Will and Allie. I’ve had to spend a few weeks recovering and am still not 100 percent, but thanks to my entire care team, including my primary care doctor, Todd Green and my cardiologist, Dr. Greg Vanzant, I’m well on the way. I can confirm, I bleed Orange.

I share this with you for two reasons. First, if you’re reading this and it’s been a while since you’ve had your physical, please schedule it now. Get checked when your doctor tells you to get checked. Nowadays, these amazing medical professionals can fix a lot of things if they just know about them before it’s too late.

Second, as I’m guessing these kinds of things often do, this episode has served as a big reset for me, personally - a reminder of what is really, truly important. Before, I was frustrated with all the changes swirling around. Now, I’m reminded how lucky we are to be alive at this dynamic time and how fortunate I am to get to work with the most dedicated and talented people of their profession – including coaches, staff, administrators, professors and leaders on campus. I’m more confident than ever that OSU is, and will be, in a great position. We have a great leader in President Hess, we have the support of our Board of Regents, and we have the best donors and fans in the country. Together, OSU Athletics will continue doing what we always have, competing for championships while creating champions for life.

Revenue Sharing

As of right now, there is a lot happening.  As you have heard me and others say, this is one of the most dynamic times in the history of college athletics. When I first got into college athletics as an unpaid intern my junior year at OSU over 30-years ago, I could not have predicted the basic amateur model of college athletics would change like it has. Of course, there are many factors that have come together over those 30 years that have culminated in where we are, and we can discuss some of those factors at another time, but change is here. We have now entered a time when schools can compensate players directly for the use of their Name, Image and Likeness. This initiative started officially on July 1st, 2025, as directed by the settlement of the House lawsuit. And while we may all have our different thoughts about this, I’m reminded of the saying, “If you don’t like change, you may like irrelevance even less”.

Revenue sharing is officially here! OSU Athletics must embrace it and we have. Much of the department’s time over the summer was spent creating, preparing and finalizing systems for written agreements with student-athletes and issuing payments. As you can imagine, there is a lot of detail to work through, especially for the first time. In addition, the Big 12 Conference entered a partnership with PayPal and Venmo that will be beneficial and unique to the Big 12 Conference, but also added a layer of complexity for implementation. I appreciate the efforts of our NIL Office, in particular McKenzie Janish, as well as help from our legal, compliance and administration in Brandon Meyer, Ben Dyson and Reid Sigmon. They have done a fantastic job of building the plane while in flight. We currently have executed agreements with our football and men’s basketball players, with other winter and spring sports still to come.

While setting up the system to distribute the money to the student-athletes has been a priority this summer, the ongoing priority continues to be how to fund the distribution.  As a reminder, virtually no athletic department ends the year with an extra $20.5 million unspent, yet that is the revenue share cap for this year. As you know, we have asked you, our fans, to help us in funding some of this through increased seating prices and contributions. We have also implemented new premium opportunities such as the field suites for football and loge boxes in GIA for men’s and women’s basketball and wrestling. In addition, we have asked each unit of the athletic department and every sport to cut five percent from their operating budgets. We also have a number of positions throughout the department that will remain unfilled as employees depart. All of this will help, but still leaves us short of the full funding and more adjustments will be required. We continue to work with campus leadership under President Hess’s direction and with the A&M Board of Regent’s support. Because it is a new era, it will take new thinking that will demand creativity of thought, shedding some old practices, some tough decisions and some sacrifices along the way. I suspect these are all things that come along with any type of change to a model or system that has been in place for decades.

For those of you that did not receive the letter then this will provide you some valuable information.