EUGENE — There is a significant financial gap between Oregon and Oklahoma State, and Mike Gundy mentioned it nearly a half dozen times before the Cowboys come to play the Ducks.
During his game week press conference on Monday, the Oklahoma State coach said Oregon is “spending a lot of money and they’ve put a lot into that organization and you can see; they’re a good football team.”
Oklahoma State plays Oregon at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Autzen Stadium.
On his weekly radio show Monday night, Gundy doubled down while expanding on his earlier remarks. Gundy noted Phil Knight’s support of UO athletics and that Oregon “elevated themselves” over the last three to five years.
“They spend a lot of money,” Gundy said on radio. “But they’re a good team. There’s no doubt about it. Our players, we talked about it today before practice, they’re excited about going out there and playing. These are opportunities for young men to go out and compete at the highest level. They’ve got ‘em stacked out there pretty good right now. It’s good for our players to see that and prepare, then believe in themselves and then believe in their team.”
Oklahoma State athletics lists total revenue of $123,203,642 for fiscal year 2024, according to its department budget. Oregon reported total operating revenue of $169,206,109 for that year, the latest available.
The projected revenues for fiscal year 2025, which ended in June, were $162,796,266 for Oregon and $120,979,600 for Oklahoma State, according to each school’s financial documents. For football specifically, UO projected $24,615,000 in revenue from tickets and game guarantees and $41,597,568 in operating expenses. Oklahoma State projected $9,624,000 in football ticket revenue.
Dan Lanning signed a contract extension this offseason worth $65.4 million through 2031, with $9.4 million in salary plus $1 million in deferred compensation this year. The salary pool for Oregon’s 10 full-time assistants increased to $9.825 million this year.
Gundy took a pay cut from $7.75 million last year to $6.875 million this year, according to the Tulsa World. The salary pool for his staff is $5.55 million this year, down from $6 million last year.
Under the terms of the House settlement, each FBS school is permitted to distribute $20.5 million to its athletes this year, though supplemental NIL compensation, including via collectives, is still permitted.
Gundy estimated that Oklahoma State spent $7 million in NIL for football over the past three years combined.
“I think Oregon spent close to $40 (million) last year alone,” Gundy said on radio. “That was just one year. Now, I might be off a few million. … But for us, what we do is we got a great group of young men that we get ready and we coach them and love them and get them to play hard and go out and compete, which they will.”
Oregon and Oklahoma State agreed to the home-and-home series, which concludes next season in Stillwater, in Sept. 2018. That was before the transfer portal even began, let alone the one-time transfer provision that has since expanded to unlimited transferring, the permissibility of name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation, which led to the advent of collectives and now direct revenue sharing from schools to athletes.
Oklahoma State also has nonconference series scheduled with Arkansas, Alabama and Nebraska. Asked whether he would have been reluctant to schedule those nonconference games had he known the financial landscape of the sport, Gundy said he has a long-term “fear” of money being skewed towards 10 to 12 schools and it disenchanted “the everyday fan” that wants to watch a competitive game.
“Nobody likes to know the ending of the movie,” Gundy said. “My concern is they need to get a grasp at some point because what I hear chatter from coaches around the country is that nonconference scheduling, and I never thought anybody would ever say this, should be based on the financial situation for each school. So if you have schools — Oregon is paying a lot, a lot of money for their team. From a nonconference standpoint, there’s coaches saying they should play teams that are spending the same amount of money.”
No. 7 Oregon (1-0) vs. Oklahoma State (1-0)
- When: Saturday, Sept. 6
- Time: 12:30 p.m. PT
- Where: Autzen Stadium, Eugene
- TV channel: CBS (KOIN in Portland)
- How to watch streaming live without cable: You can watch this game live for FREE with DirecTV (free trial) or by signing up for Fubo (free trial).
- Oregon football 2025 season schedule, scores
— James Crepea covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten.
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