Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy told players to stop ‘asking for more money’ and NIL deals, focus on football
The time for negotiating NIL deals, at least in Stillwater, is over.
Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy revealed last week that he told his players that they need to stop “asking for more money” and focus on the season.
“I told the players there’s no negotiating now,” Gundy said, via The Associated Press. “Portal’s over. All negotiation’s history. Now we’re playing football. Just coaching and playing football.”
With how both the transfer portal and name, image and likeness deals have erupted in recent years, it’s not surprising to hear that Gundy wants to put that aside with the Cowboys’ season opener less than two weeks away. And, with NIL rules constantly changing throughout college sports, there’s a lot more for Gundy to keep up with. College football today looks vastly different than when it did when he was first hired at Oklahoma State in 2005.
But at this point, he’s done with it.
“The business side of what we do now is, we have to have those conversations with them,” Gundy said. “Tell your agent to quit calling us and asking for more money. It’s non-negotiable now. Start again in December.”
Oklahoma State went 10-4 last season and reached the Big 12 title game, thanks largely to a breakout year from running back Ollie Gordon II, and are a contender for a spot in the expanded College Football Playoff this season. Gordon ran for an FBS-high 1,732 yards and had 22 total touchdowns last season. He was arrested on DUI charges earlier this summer, but Gundy — who struggled when initially trying to defend Gordon at Big 12 media days — said he wouldn’t miss playing time because of it.
The Cowboys, who will start the season ranked in the AP poll No. 17 in the country, will host South Dakota State in their first game of the year on Aug. 31.
While he knows college football will continue to change and adapt in regards to how it handles NIL deals, especially when colleges will be able to pay players directly, that’s a problem for his future self.
“It’s going to change again,” Gundy said, via The Oklahoman. “Over the next 5 ½ months, we can just play football. That’s what I’ve asked the staff to do and the players to do, is get out of the realm of all this stuff that’s gone on and just play football through January. After that, we can get back into it.”
