Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy has provided the No. 6-ranked Oregon Ducks with bulletin board material ahead of their Week 2 matchup in Eugene.
“We spent around $7 million over the last three years, and I think Oregon spent close to $40 [million] last year alone,” Gundy said on his weekly radio show. “That was just one year. Now, I might be off a few million. What I’m saying is they’re spending a lot of money. There’s some schools that are doing that.”
Gundy also expressed that there’s “chatter” among coaches that out-of-conference scheduling “should be based on the financial situation for each school.”
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning responded.
“I’ve got a ton of respect for Coach Gundy. Ultimately, how blessed are we being at a place that’s invested in winning? If you want to be a top-10 team in college football, you better be invested in winning, and we spend to win. Some people save to have an excuse for why they don’t,” Lanning said on Monday. “I can’t speak on their situation. I have no idea what they 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.”
This isn’t the first time that Oregon has been at the center of NIL criticism/humor. At last year’s SEC Media Days, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart joked that he wished he could get his hands on the NIL money that Nike co-founder Phil Knight is “sharing with Dan Lanning.” Knight, the owner of Nike, grew up in Portland, roughly an hour-and-a-half north of Oregon’s campus, and attended Oregon as a student.
Both the Ducks and Cowboys were victorious in Week 1, as Oregon handled Montana State (59-13) and Oklahoma State beat Tennessee-Martin (27-7). In what was his first career start for the Ducks, quarterback Dante Moore – who backed up 2024 Heisman Trophy finalist Dillon Gabriel last season and played his 2023 freshman season at UCLA – threw for 213 yards and three touchdowns, while posting a 199.1 passer rating and completing 78.3% of his passes.
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Oregon is coming off a 13-1 season that saw it win the Big Ten in its first year in the conference and claim the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff before losing to Ohio State in the quarterfinal round; Lanning is in his fourth season at Oregon, with the program 36-6 over that span (2022-present).
Oklahoma State is coming off a season that saw it finish 3-9 overall, 0-9 in Big 12 play and fail to qualify for a bowl game for the first time since 2005; Gundy is in his 21st season as Oklahoma State’s head coach, with the program 170-88 over that span (2005-present).
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