It has been a tough couple of years for the Oklahoma State Cowboys soccer program and longtime head coach Mike Gundy. The Cowboys completed 10-4 in 2023 and earned a victory within the Texas Bowl to complete the 12 months at No. 16 within the Coaches and AP Polls. Then, the college opened up the 2024 season at 3-0, reaching as excessive as No. 13 within the AP Ballot. That transient successful streak was adopted by 9 consecutive losses to finish the season, capped off by a grand finale of a 52-0 residence defeat to Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes.
This season, the Cowboys began off 1-2, and the administration had seen sufficient. Oklahoma State fired Gundy after 21 years on the program. He had been the second-longest tenured FBS coach.
Gundy restructured his contract this offseason. And now, he’ll get a hefty buyout: He’ll obtain $15 million from the college.
Stacy Revere/Getty Pictures
The brand new contract ran by way of 2028 and would have paid Gundy $6.75 million this season, with a $125,000 increase in every subsequent 12 months. If the college might have waited till 2028, his buyout would have solely been $10 million. With the present state of this system, ready wasn’t an choice.
Though issues aren’t nice proper now, Gundy succeeded in turning this system round. Earlier than his arrival in 2005, the college had solely achieved double-digit wins 3 times in its historical past. And Oklahoma State has performed official video games since 1901—that is three 10+ win seasons in 103 years!
Gundy hit the double-digit mark in eight completely different seasons, and he led the Cowboys to the college’s first and solely outright Huge 12 title in 2011. He finishes his Oklahoma State profession because the winningest coach in program historical past with a report of 170-90, a Paul “Bear” Bryant Nationwide Coach of the Yr award, and three Huge 12 Coach of the Yr awards.
In recent times, Gundy noticed his recruiting efforts wrestle. NIL offers and gamers switching faculties extra ceaselessly disrupted the consistency he had labored to construct. Ultimately, the wheels utterly fell off.
All through his head teaching profession, Gundy had earned effectively over $60 million in wage and bonuses. He additionally had incentives with reaching bowl video games and convention championships that added to his compensation. Together with his buyout, he is now made north of $75 million as a head coach.
We could but see the 58-year-old Gundy on the sidelines at one other college. However there isn’t any have to rush. After this buyout, he is actually not hurting for cash.
