Mike Gundy Highest Paid Big 12 Coach, What is His Value Compared to the Others?

The one thing that really sticks out is UCF's football revenue. They're selling a lot of tickets or have some side media deals as they're $20M a year ahead of the other schools in AAC. Good for them, but it's a bit shocking.

This contract is absurd. Oklahoma State is not the school with the budget to keep up like this. You can't pay your head coach this kind of money with the revenue you have coming in. Your about to make Pennies compared to what your used too once 2025 is over.

UCF is an enormous school - 3 times as big as OSU.

Their stadium is about the same size and they have over 4, 000 club seats and 26 suits (which is really big - OSU is just exceptional in that regard, especially our suites).

They have been increasing money dramatically since their 2018 undefeated season under Scott Frost.

Entry into the B12 had brought even more emphasis on boosting the budget

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2022/03/22/Colleges/UCF.aspx

we should not underestimate the capability of the Golden Knights faithful

Crazed_Stallion said:

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This contract is absurd. Oklahoma State is not the school with the budget to keep up like this. You can't pay your head coach this kind of money with the revenue you have coming in. Your about to make Pennies compared to what your used too once 2025 is over.

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personally, I do not think the amount is absurd, I think we could easily have that type of budget, and I think we will not see a significant drop in future monies.... especially not until after the current media contract ends.

it's almost 3 years out... are supposed to sit idle while the future passes by?

Either OSU is a big dog or we are not. If not, then we should drop football, or move to the Missouri Valley conf. or some other drastic "cost saving" move.

One thing to remember in all this is in 2026 we'll be under a new playoff deal and it is going to pay out more, and probably be expanded. So that revenue will double, and we'll get playoff game money every year. And that will be in the neighborhood of $60M plus $6M for getting a team in the playoffs by the last year of the contract.

That should at least double, and mean that we'll see something like $120M + $12M for a team, and going to three rounds I can't imagine they won't come up with advancement money, so you'd see maybe $6M more for 2nd round and $10M for championship game.

There's going to be a gap with B1G & SEC, but there's going to be plenty of money for the other 3 conferences.

Not saying sit idle. I am saying the athletic budget is not big enough for this kind of money. If donations were to step up (they won't) then it could be done. We all just need to face it. OSU is not a blue blood or anywhere near it. This will set all programs back for years if not decades. We all know Gundy and Co, can't win 10+ games every year. If they did that money would definitely come in. They will win 7-8 games this season. That's the record that Gundy has showed. It's a fact.

Crazed_Stallion said:

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This contract is absurd. Oklahoma State is not the school with the budget to keep up like this. You can't pay your head coach this kind of money with the revenue you have coming in. Your about to make Pennies compared to what your used too once 2025 is over.

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Crazed Stallion.......Gundy has not only improved our TV market impact as well as ticket sales, but also you have to consider his impact on donar monies and marketing. T. Boone, Smith, the Humphreys, (perhaps even McKnights, Greenwoods), etc. have respected and been inspired to contribute due to Gundy's consistency in winning, trend towards a bigger time program, success in recruiting, seeming ability to coach up folks and all the while improving grades, graduation and demanding good citizenship of our players. You have to look at his overall value on facilities, donations, winning, player development, etc. and what it would mean to have a coach with less vision and broad, program impacts in his place to judge his value IMO.

So are you saying go backwards?

If we cut his salary and the staffs we probably lose him, and we wind up with some new coach we can pay $3M a year, and then we can win 4-7 games a year. That's the only thing to infer from your call for less staff pay to get it in line with what we can "afford". Then would we once again cut staff budget when we lose revenue from all the tickets we don't sell? How low does it go?

Just not in the budget is all I'm saying. Oklahoma State is NOT that kind of school. They don't have a big stick to swing.

Crazed_Stallion said:

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Just not in the budget is all I'm saying. Oklahoma State is NOT that kind of school. They don't have a big stick to swing.

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says who?

don't look now, but we're the big kid on the block, and were in the top 3 of a P5 conference before these teams split for the SEC

also, we don't need to have the same amount of money, because we have far fewer athletic teams to support.

Says the financial numbers released every single year. They are not the "Big Kid on the block." 2 more years of Texas and OU. After that it will be a glorified P5 conference.

who is "they" are not the big kid on the block, do you me US? OSU?

what numbers are you talking about? the "numbers" must be taken in context, and OSU DOES NOT NEED, the same amount of money to run our Athletic Department, because we have far fewer sports to support.

so, I ask again, what numbers? Recruiting budgets? HC salaries? Football expenditures?

Texas and Texas AM who have the most revenue have 18 sports, OSU has 16. They have budgets double ours, we're firmly in the middle of the pack.

OU has 19
Alabama has 21
Georgia 19
Ohio State 33
Michigan has 29
Iowa has 22
Stanford has 36
UCLA has 25

we can go on....

the NCAA MINIMUM is 12 for D1

we do not need the same amount of money to maintain our athletic department as other schools might.

OK State is paying its coach at that power two level.. as a coach, Gundy has earned it. Going forward though, think OSU athletics is being stretched thin. https://t.co/TuEuvs1q4T

— Cayden McFarland (@caydenmc) March 29, 2022

This article: https://pokesreport.com/s/2124/the-cost-of-winning-football-games-is-going-up-pokes-will-need-to-pay

Would indicate that many of those schools are supporting more sports and Football at a significantly higher level than OSU is/can. Alabama is putting roughly 2/3 of our entire athletic budget into just Football.

Danny Deck said:

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This article: https://pokesreport.com/s/2124/the-cost-of-winning-football-games-is-going-up-pokes-will-need-to-pay

Would indicate that many of those schools are supporting more sports and Football at a significantly higher level than OSU is/can. Alabama is putting roughly 2/3 of our entire athletic budget into just Football.

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I always look deeply at those types of articles and numbers... they vary so widely story by story

here's one with a completely different result from 2016 (i.e., right in the middle of the 2014-2018 range from the other list)

https://www.sportscasting.com/ncaa-20-college-football-programs-raking-in-the-money/

here is recruiting spending from 2019
https://www.on3.com/news/ranking-college-football-programs-in-recruiting-spending-georgia-alabama-tennessee-clemson-arkansas/

who spends the most on college football (2019)
https://www.syracuse.com/orangefootball/2017/08/which_schools_spend_the_most_on_college_football_where_does_syracuse_rank.html

Danny Deck said:

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This article: https://pokesreport.com/s/2124/the-cost-of-winning-football-games-is-going-up-pokes-will-need-to-pay

Would indicate that many of those schools are supporting more sports and Football at a significantly higher level than OSU is/can. Alabama is putting roughly 2/3 of our entire athletic budget into just Football.

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And what does that have to do with how we spend our money?

Right now we can afford our staff, and our revenue is going to continue to increase. I think that estimate is very conservative since we have no track record. However our numbers put as the #3 conference without OU & UT so with the right strategy and partners we could easily see us ahead of the PAC & ACC. The ACC projections are built on maxing out some assumptions so they probably don't make what's in that article.

So yes we're going to have less to spend than OU or Ohio State, but so what. We will rarely be playing them. We will be making more money than most of the schools in the Big XII, and we have one of the best run AD's in the country. Our leaders spend the money wisely and we don't run at a deficit.

The B1G/SEC schools will have twice as much money, and they'll spend it buying 5* players away from each other, and we'll only play them in the playoffs. Or in a rare ooc game. We don't get the 5* now and we're doing just fine. So let them go outspend each other. We'll be fine making half what they make and getting the same kids we get now, and turning them into top notch players.

It depends on what the goals are. I'm fine with aiming for conference titles in Football rather than anything more. If the expectation is more than that, the money we have is going to be a limiting factor.