NIL
Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, Oregon’s Dan Lanning trade words over NIL
STILLWATER — Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy might’ve ruffled some duck feathers with comments Monday about the amount of money Oregon has spent on name, image and likeness deals with football players.
At his weekly news conference, Gundy mentioned that the Ducks, under coach Dan Lanning, are “spending a lot of money,” but he went further in depth during his radio show Monday night, ahead of the teams’ 2:30 p.m. Saturday meeting in Eugene, Oregon.
Gundy said OSU has spent roughly $7 million over the last three years, and speculated Oregon “spent close to $40 (million) last year alone. So, that was just one year. Now, I might be off a few million.”
He added that “it will cost them a lot of money to keep” quarterback Dante Moore, and suggested there’s an opinion among some coaches that Oregon should play non-conference opponents with similar budgets.
Lanning, when speaking to the media Monday night, spoke his mind as well.
“I got a ton of respect for Coach Gundy,” he said. “You know, ultimately, how blessed are we to be in a place that’s invested in winning? If you want to be a top 10 team in college football, you’d better be invested in winning. And we spend to win. Some people save to have an excuse for why they don’t, right? Ultimately, he’s a great coach, and they’ve done an unbelievable job, but I want to be a team that’s competing at the highest level, and we’re really fortunate to be in that situation.
“So I can’t speak on their situation. I have no idea, you know, what they’ve got in their pockets over there. I’m sure UT Martin maybe didn’t have as much as them last week, and they played. So we’ll let it play out.”
Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on X at @ScottWrightOK. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.