Mike Gundy Goes National to Clarify Comments from Earlier this Week
EUGENE, Ore. – This morning on national radio, Sirius-XM, Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy went on the air to clear the air on comments he made on Monday at his weekly news conference and that night on his weekly radio show. Gundy was asked about the revenue share and NIL situations at his school and schools like Oregon. His first comment was on a general question about the Ducks football program. Gundy was complimenting Oregon head coach Dan Lanning his school for their commitment in that area. The talk later on the radio show went a little deeper, but again, not pointing any kind of finger at Oregon other than strong commitment to win and compete for championships.
I blame social media and a segment of the media, primarily internet websites, that are looking and fishing for controversial “click bait” type of stories. Yes, I know Pokes Report is an internet fan website. I grew up in an era of fairness in the media, had too many instructors and mentors that pushed those journalistic morals on me. I’m not going to engage in it, but others do.
As a result this has been mostly a week like in the summer, talking more about money and how it is distributed now in college football. Talking about the difference it makes versus just talking and writing about football.
“A little bit of that was taken out of context, the truth of the matter, Rick, is I was being very complimentary of Oregon and their commitment,” Gundy said to former college head coach Rick Neuheisel and Chris Childers on the Sirius college sports show Full Ride. “The other things that had been said that day were that they have made a huge commitment to facilities. They’ve made a huge commitment to their staff. They’ve made a huge commitment to their surrounding staff, and then they’ve made a huge commitment to their NIL.”
Gundy had two objectives in his appearance on Sirius-XM. One, was to clarify his comments as to not being negative of Oregon and the money they spend on their roster in football. Gundy is actually friendly with Oregon coach Dan Lanning since they spent time together on a Nike spring trip two years ago. The second objective was to make sure his administration and his school’s fans knows he appreciates what they do.
“The thing that people have to understand is that I’m very appreciative of what we’ve done at Oklahoma State,” Gundy said turning the spotlight back at his program. “Our administration is trying and doing everything they can to facilitate us in the NIL window. You hear the term donor fatigue, I can only imagine the donors across the country at maybe all but 15-to-18 schools continuing to ask for more money is extremely difficult.
“It is a different time and there is a tremendous strain on universities and donors,” Gundy continued. “You know the concern is we went to the revenue share and it looked like third party NIL isn’t going to change much. The only thing that looks has happened is the University has a $21 million budget item they have to meet now and the third party NIL is still going to be in great demand as we move forward.”
I’m going to hope that we have ended the talk on how much the players are being paid and instead talk about how well they are expected to play this Saturday at Autzen Stadium.
