University of Oklahoma president David Boren plans to retire next June

The news we all suspected was coming was officially announced by David Boren on Wednesday afternoon. After over two decades as the president of the University of Oklahoma, Boren is set to retire on June 30. If a successor is not named by that time, he plans to stay on until a successor is named.

Boren has been one of the most influential university leaders in the United States during his time at OU, and he’s done quite a lot to bolster OU’s academic reputation. Earlier this month, OU made the top 100 of U.S. News and World Reports’s National University Rankings for the first time in school history.

As far as athletics are concerned, Boren has played as big a role as anyone in conference realignment this decade. He is often credited with keeping the Big 12 together (for better or worse) while at the same time creating rumblings of realignment and expansion over the past seven or eight years.

Overall, Boren has certainly been a net positive for OU, and many consider him to be the best president in the school’s history despite the fact that there are some complicated aspects of his legacy. I’ve criticized him in the past, but make no mistake — he’s been great for the University of Oklahoma. He’s largely responsible, along with Joe Castiglione, for keeping Bob Stoops in town as coach for 18 years, and he’s done a fantastic job of fundraising during his two-plus decades as president. OU is basically unrecognizable compared to what it was when he took over, and this OU grad is incredibly proud of what he and others have built since 1994.

We’ll have more on this later. Boomer Sooner.

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