STILLWATER — Money talk has been front and center every time Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy meets with the media lately as he and his program navigate the changing landscape of college football.
Gundy said Thursday that his program spent roughly $2.7 million on name, image and likeness deals for players last season — a number he says is significantly lower than the top tier of college football.
“We’ve been competing against teams that pay a ton of money, and we’re not paying a ton of money,” Gundy said in a discussion with a small group of reporters following his first weekly press conference of the season. “We only paid $2.7 million last year, and there was 25 teams that paid over $15 million — we know that for a fact — and maybe more than that.
“In my opinion, you’re not gonna be able to compete anymore on a low budget. You just won’t be able to do it. You won’t have any players.”
For the fiscal year concluding in June 2023, OSU ranked 46th in athletic revenue among public universities according to the USA Today revenue report, earning $104.4 million to cover its expenditures of $103.3 million.
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OSU football coach Mike Gundy says “you’re not gonna be able to compete anymore on a low budget.”
Twenty-two schools had total revenue of at least $150 million and eight had $190 million with Ohio State leading the list at $251 million.
Not only is the need to fund NIL becoming more important, but also, the looming NCAA antitrust settlement, if approved in court, could open the door for universities to pay up to $23 million to their athletes.
Gundy said his program’s ability to compete with its budget constraints is going to be continually more difficult.
“We had enough carryover in long-term (players) and culture,” Gundy said. “There wasn’t the brash recruiting families just blatantly saying, ‘How much money you gonna pay me?’ That’s going on now. That didn’t happen last year. Very little. So we could kind of sidestep it.
“Can’t do that anymore.”
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Managing workload of Ollie Gordon II
One of the most watched stat lines in OSU games this season will be attached to star running back Ollie Gordon II, the reigning Doak Walker Award winner and Heisman Trophy hopeful who anchors the Cowboy offense.
Gundy knows he can’t run Gordon into the ground with the potential for a 14- or 15-game season aheaad, so the coach is trying to manage expectations for how often Gordon touches the ball this season.
“Twenty carries would be good for him, good for us,” Gundy said. “Will there be times he has to carry more? Probably. Will there be times we can keep it where he’s carrying less? Hopefully.
“We have developed some talent and a little maturity behind him. We need to protect him for us and protect him for the NFL.”
Gordon has added bulk to his 6-foot-2 frame, listed at 225 pounds now, and Gundy says he’s seen no negative impact of the weight increase.
“He looks good,” Gundy said. “He’s growing. His legs, his thighs are this big (holds hands more than 12 inches apart). You don’t know it because he’s so long and gangly.”
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Jul 9, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon II speaks to the media during the Big 12 Media Days at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports
South Dakota State requiring more focus
With a challenging season opener against the top-ranked team from the FCS level, Gundy says he will extend his use of physical practices into next week, as opposed to the past when he calmed down the contact earlier in the preseason.
“This is a really good game for us,” he said. “We’re playing a high-level non-conference schedule. This team can perform with Power Four schools. They’ve proven they can do that.
“We hope scheduling will be rewarded in the end.”
Gundy is 15-0 against FCS programs in his career, but has never faced a test like SDSU, which has led to more film study than for a typical lower-level opponent.
“It’s the first game of the year, so there’s a lot of unknown out there,” he said. “But I don’t see them changing from what they do.”
The 18th-ranked Cowboys open the season at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 31 against the Jackrabbits at Boone Pickens Stadium.
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Oct 21, 2023; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys safety Kendal Daniels (5) tackles West Virginia Mountaineers running back CJ Donaldson Jr. (4) during the first quarter at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports
Kendal Daniels officially a linebacker
One of the biggest changes to the OSU defense since last season was the experiment with safety Kendal Daniels as an outside linebacker.
The experiment seems to be working well, with Daniels listed as a starter at the position on OSU’s first official depth chart of the year.
“With three-down, four-down, different looks, different personal groupings that come in, they use him there more, percentage-wise, now,” Gundy said of the 6-foot-4, 235-pound redshirt junior. “We thought this would happen based on his body. He still has a ways to go. He’s come a long ways. It’ll be interesting to see how he develops the first month.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Mike Gundy discusses Oklahoma State football’s NIL expenditures
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Publish date : 2024-08-22 03:56:00
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