LAS VEGAS — Mike Gundy isn’t always happy to adapt to the everchanging landscape of college football, but the Oklahoma State coach understands the importance of it. His latest move, however, seemed to come more naturally, considering Gundy’s opinion of where college football is currently headed.
Gundy sees players becoming treated as employees rather than student-athletes as the door opens wider and wider on what is allowed in terms of paying players.
Gundy recently hired former Cowboy linebacker and former Vian Wolverine Kenyatta Wright as OSU’s director of business and finance, and with the wide range of experience Wright has had in various avenues of football, the move looks like a perfect fit.
While the title might sound more like a pure numb e r- c runche r, Wright’s position will serve as a bridge between the program and the players, or their representatives, when working through financial details at the point when universities are allowed to directly pay players — which isn’t far away.
“There’s so much in college football now that’s going into a different world,” Gundy said last week at Big 12 Media Days at Allegiant Stadium. “I have a pretty good feel for the part of college football that I’ve done for 35 years, 20 as a head coach. I’m comfortable with the way we operate.
“We’ve been lucky that we were able to hire Kenyatta and make him the director of business and finance, which is essentially a front office for an NFL (franchise).”
It’s the type of position that didn’t exist in college football three years ago, but is becoming widely common now. Yet there’s no defined method for the role or the person who fits it.
Wright’s experience level seems ideal.
Wright, who played for the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills after his college career, was involved with the National Football League Players Association during his playing days and beyond. He has been a coach at the high school level.
Most recently, Wright has had various levels of involvement with Pokes with a Purpose, the OSU collective that was developed when name, image and likeness guidelines were established a couple years ago.
“He’ll develop a staff, and they’ll handle all the financial side of this with the players, communication with agents, runners, representatives, PR people,” Gundy said. “Salaries, brand, name, image, likeness.
“We’re going to have to have a business side of Oklahoma State football that will handle and work daily to put ourselves in a position to move forward, because if we sit back and watch, we’re gonna get run over.”
A lawsuit settled by the power conferences and the NCAA will allow universities to pay out more than $20 million per year to their athletes, though the settlement has not yet been finalized by the court system.
Still, coaches and athletic directors are bracing for the moment it goes through.
“The business side of it is new to me,” Gundy said. “So, I’ve spent the last five, six months in more business and numbers meetings, and meetings that don’t make any sense to me than I have in my career as a head coach — but I have to do that based on the times are changing.
“Kenyatta’s got great experience with this. He was very involved and highly respected in the NFL’s Players Association, and essentially what we’re going now is what they’re doing. So, it’s important that we have him, and he works directly with me every day. He can take all that off my plate.”
From the players’ perspective, Wright is a familiar face, because he has been around the program, as has his son, Elijah, who spent the previous two years as a walk-on linebacker with the Cowboys.
“That’s my guy,” OSU linebacker Nick Martin said. “He’s like a big mentor to us. He puts us in a position to succeed. He gets us connected with the right guys, making sure we’re not being taken advantage of.
“He makes sure we are taken care of, and we operate as a business as individuals — because that’s what we are. He genuinely cares about us like his kids. He’s a great, genuine guy.”
