
The Oklahoma A&M Board of Regents approved Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy’s new contract on Friday, according to The Oklahoman‘s Scott Wright (you should really read Scott’s Report).
The contract, according to Wright, includes a $1 million pay reduction (which is set to be applied toward revenue sharing), a reduced buyout and eliminates the annual rollover that Gundy once had which gave him a perpetual five-year deal. The new contract is a four-year deal that is set to expire after the 2028 season that will start at $6.875 million per year with an annual raise of $125,000. Gundy’s new buyout is a flat total of $15 million (down from the more than $25 million it was). That buyout drops to $10 million in 2028.
There are also some interesting bits and bobs as part of the deal like increased engagement in fundraising and donor activities and lays the groundwork for an eventual succession plan. Both of those, according to Wright, were at the request of OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg.
The succession plan, according to Wright’s report, would allow Gundy to play a role in identifying, evaluating and developing a potential successor and facilitate a smooth transition of power. A succession plan was something Gundy discussed a little bit at Big 12 Media Days (before OSU’s dreadful season), coming after news that Utah named defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley as the Utes’ “head coach in waiting.”
“If I’m fortunate enough to be in a situation to say Oklahoma State football is in great shape and this is somebody I would recommend to be the head coach here and would make me comfortable, I would like that and appreciate it,” said Gundy at Big 12 Media Days. “I have a lot of years and a lot of service at this place. And I would like to see it get better and better and better, and when I’m done, even better. I want to be able to go and sit in a suite and enjoy watching the game and be proud of a sold-out stadium and a premiere team on the field that has a chance to win every Saturday. That’s what I would look forward to at some point. Now when that would happen, probably gonna be a long time based on I feel good. Unless they run me off.
“But it’s a good question, I never thought about [a coach-in-waiting]. But I really believe it’s so far down the line for me that I don’t have to think about it, but at some point, I would like to be able to say maybe these two guys to pick from, because Oklahoma State is a different situation. It’s a very unusual job. You have to have a little bit of history with it to really know it, in my opinion.”
The process of this new contract really got rolling at another Board of Regents meeting in early December. The Cowboys came off their worst season under Gundy, going 3-9, with the season finale being a 52-0 loss against Colorado. The poor season was compounded by comments Gundy made in November about people voicing negative opinions “can’t pay their own bills.”
All those factors led to what was a wild Friday in early December that started with a regents meeting that Weiberg and OSU president Kayse Shrum attended. News then came out that Gundy and OSU were in a “standoff” about Gundy’s future with the program. It eventually all led to this restructured deal.
Gundy met with reporters last week for the first time since all that took place. Gundy said some of the drama was “blown out of proportion” and that his commitment to OSU is “stronger every year.”
Weiberg also took to the podium that day, backing his head coach.
“There’s been 19 years of evidence of why there should be trust in him moving forward,” Weiberg said. “It’s pretty remarkable what we’ve done in that time. You go back, obviously this year ended that, but prior to that the number of consecutive winning seasons, there was like two other schools that had that — two. So there are a lot of big brands out there that have broken that streak way before we did.
“He didn’t forget everything he knows overnight. I think there was just a lot of confidence there. He knows this place better than anybody — he’s been here, played here, he’s coached here for a long time. Loyal, loves this place. That’s what gave us the confidence.”

Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.