Is Oregon the Next Oklahoma State?

For years, Oklahoma State had the second-richest owner in college football in oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens. Pickens was OSU’s version of Phil Knight. He donated over $652 million to his alma mater until his death at the age of 91 in 2019.

Unfortunately, for Cowboys athletics, Pickens died before the NIL era begun. The pre-NIL era was a simpler time when the facilities arms race was the best way to spend (blow) money in order to put together a winning football team. The better the facilities, the better the player. Even Mr. FishDuck took a break from his study of Certified professional essay writers for students to reminisce about the days before NIL.

Life was just so damn easy back then.

For years, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy was coaching from the penthouse suite; anything he needed, Pickens would pay for it. (This included the hair implants for Gundy’s mullet. OK, not really.) But, unfortunately for the Cowboys, the blank check Pickens had written them was buried with him.

Perhaps if Pickens had lived to see the beginning of our new world of college football, he might have set up his fortune to make sure that there would be plenty of residual NIL money for the foreseeable future.

But, no.

Ducks living high on the hog. (Photo by Max Unkrich)

Now, Gundy is living in the “poor” house. Whining about how much money Oregon is spending on their roster compared to how little the Cowboys are. Etc., etc., etc. And, that is all I will write about regarding Oklahoma State, because as Oregon supporters, we do not care about them.

What we do care about is the future of Oregon football, and Oklahoma State’s financial plight has to make us stop and think about our own. How, exactly, will the Ducks handle life after Knight?

I have read here and there that Knight has it set up so that the Oregon athletic department will continue to be handsomely supported long after he is gone. It does not appear that Oregon will fall off the financial cliff. But, the truth is, we will not know the true impact until that time comes.

Will Oregon really continue to be a top-tier funded NIL program? Will the Ducks slip down to second, third, or an even lower-tier school in financial funding? With the dropping of each tier comes the dropping of the annual win total.

And, what about the unforeseen things that come up? The $2 million here and the $500,000 there that was not in the budget, but Uncle Phil always had the program’s back. The bottom line is, to one degree or another, life for Oregon sports will be harder without Phil Knight.

Sure, we can pile on Gundy now for his whining and his fall from financial grace. (He is bringing much of it on himself.)

But, before we bash him any further, Oregon fans might want to ask themselves one, simple question:

Will that be us someday?

Darren Perkins
Spokane, WA
Top photo credit: Max Unkrich