Brief Practice Thursday and The Athletic Wins Cost Analysis Shows Cowboys a Bargain

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State got in their 14th of the 15 practices allowed by the NCAA on Thursday evening. The team went through an hour and a half practice, fairly short, inside Boone Pickens Stadium. It was short for a reason.

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Offensive line has worked overtime.

“We had to go easy on our offensive linemen,” head coach Mike Gundy told Pokes Report earlier in the day. “They’ve been putting in extra duty and needed to give them a break. It’s been hard for our quarterbacks because they are getting a lot of practice running around. We want to have everybody ready for Saturday, so we can put the best example on the field of what we’ve looked like this spring.”

There were still highlights as Spencer Sanders threw a couple of impressive touchdown passes. One came on a fade route in the northwest corner end zone to Braydon Johnson. It was a good throw and an even better catch by Johnson. The other was a mid level out that Brennan Prelsey turned into a longer play with his explosive ability and he ran into the southwest corner of the end zone almost exactly where he ended that Bedlam kickoff return for a touchdown in the win over Oklahoma. 

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Dylan Smith had a photo shoot inside and outside the stadium on Thursday.

One recruiting visitor was already on hand as Dylan Smith of Little Elm (Braswell), Texas was there. The cornerback prospect is really talented and good size. He was out in front of Boone Pickens Stadium as students walked by taking pictures in full uniform with a horse as many recruits do. Then he retired underneath the west end zone tunnel for some pictures with effects. Smith is the brother of current Cowboys red-shirt freshman corner Cam Smith. The parents, Charlies and Dee Smith, are here on the visit as well.

I spoke with Gundy after sending him a story that appeared on Thursday morning in The Athletic. National college writer Andy Staples received a question from a subscriber on how much each Power Five school spends on football by wins. It’s a question that we have tackled before on Pokes Report in various ways. I applaud Staples’ research. He was thorough. I always took the average for each school’s budget in the decade multiplied it by 10, then divided that by the total of wins in the decade.

Staples did all of the Power Five, but here is the Big 12 according to his figures. The interesting aspect of this is Kansas spent the most on wins in the decade. The reason was they had very few of those. Texas spent more and honestly the Longhorns didn’t win that much.

As bargains go, Oklahoma State spent the second least amount per win out of the Power Five and Kansas State was the best value per win in college football in the decade of 2010-19.

“This is what fans need to see. When I was talking about the raises everybody got in the West End Zone in our football program this is the information our fans should have seen,” Gundy said.

When asked why local outlets don’t put out that information out? I told Gundy we did at Pokes Report.

“Yes, but they all think you’re a homer,” Gundy responded.

True but it is still factual.

These numbers get your attention.  

Staples went further and did the math by conference and there should be no surprise that the SEC and the Big Ten were the costliest when it comes to winning football games.

Now, for our spin that is original. The American Athletic Conference, which is home of three of the four future members of the Big 12 in Cincinnati, Houston, and Central Florida is right behind the Power Five Conferences spending $2.36 million per victory. I thought it might be interesting to see what those new schools spent per win in the previous decade. No surprise, BYU spent the most then as you can see Central Florida with Houston and Cincinnati spending less the Oklahoma State and Kansas State.

The moral or the message you should take from this story is that Oklahoma State football is still a bargain and all those coaches, support staff, and employees in football in the West End Zone deserved that raise they received and maybe more.