Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy made quite a splash when he suggested programs like Oregon, which have larger budgets, should play other teams with large budgets. He said his problem only spent $7 million, while he says Oregon spent an estimated $40 million.
"I think Oregon spent close to $40 [million] last year alone," Gundy said. "So, that was just one year. Now, I might be off a few million."
"Oregon is paying a lot, a lot of money for their team," Gundy said. "From a nonconference standpoint, there's coaches saying they should [play teams with similar budgets]."
It sounds like Gundy is saying that the Ducks need to play teams with equal footing to than cupcakes, which a lot of teams tend to do
But Oregon head coach Dan Lanning had an answer to Gundy: We pay to win.
"If you want to be a top-10 team in college football, you better be invested in winning. We spend to win," Lanning said when asked about Gundy's comments. "Some people save to have an excuse for why they don't. ... I can't speak on their situation; I have no idea what they got in their pockets over there."
It’s no secret that the Ducks are bankrolled by Phil Knight, who owns NIKE, but it has been Lanning who has put the Ducks on the college football map. The Ducks have been consistently, over the years, one of the best teams in the country, recently, including making the College Football Playoff last year, and were the No. 1 team in the nation for a while at one point.
Meanwhile, Gundy and the Cowboys haven’t come close to that success despite their benefactor, the late T. Boone Pickens, spending millions on that program.