The new college football: ‘Tell your agent to quit calling us and asking for more money’

Fair or not, the first thing that springs to mind when someone mentions the name Mike Gundy is not his 166-79 record or his 11 top-25 finishes at Oklahoma State, where he is heading into his 20th season as head coach.

Instead, it is still his viral moment from 17 years ago, when he chastised a reporter for what Gundy deemed unfair coverage of an OSU quarterback. “Come after me! I’m a man! I’m 40!” Gundy said emphatically.

He had turned 40 just a month earlier, and I cannot count how many times I’ve shouted some version of “I’m a man! I’m 40!” since it happened, particularly in the nearly eight years after my milestone birthday also arrived.

Gundy recently turned 57, and it’s fair to say the changes in his world are not limited to a few more aches and pains or gray hairs.

He gave a glimpse of that with another provocative quote recently, which I talked about at the end of Tuesday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

The transfer portal and name, image and likeness money have already transformed college sports, and another seismic shift is coming a year from now. Gophers AD Mark Coyle is talking about needing a general manager type of role in his department to manage the expected $21 million in payments to athletes that will begin with the 2025-26 schoolyear.

Gundy is talking about the jockeying for more money and better deals that is already taking place among college athletes and their representatives.

“The good news is, the next five months we can just play football. There’s no negotiating now. The portal’s over. All the negotiation’s history. Now we’re playing football,” Gundy said recently. “The business side of what we do now — we have to have those conversations with [the players]. Tell your agent to quit calling us and asking for more money. It’s non-negotiable now. It’ll start again in December. So now we’re able to direct ourselves just in football, and that part is fun.”

Ironically, one of the other dust-ups during Gundy’s tenure involved allegations of arranging payments for players a little over a decade ago.

That used to be illegal; now it’s been normalized. OSU players will have QR codes on their helmets this season linking to a site where fans can contribute to the general NIL fund.

There is some additional irony, too, when thinking about the version of a college athlete (a quarterback at a major program) Gundy was trying to protect in 2007.

That athlete is gone, too.

The notion of being fair to college athletes — or any subjects, for that matter — hasn’t changed. But the idea that they are amateurs afforded a different status than pro athletes is vanishing.

Yes, they are by and large younger than their pro peers. But they are also young adults with an increasing amount of power and money that used to be reserved for the next stage of athletic careers.

What Gundy is imagining, and perhaps already seeing, is the culture shift that comes when money enters the equation. As the depth chart changes, and as players see how much the next guy is making, they want raises just like the pros.

It only stops for a few months when the focus turns to the field. We’d better enjoy it while it lasts.

Here are four more things to know today: