Why Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy says NCAA is becoming 'a non-factor' in college football
Scott WrightThe Oklahoman
STILLWATER — Asked about the forthcoming NCAA antitrust lawsuit settlement that will bring the next wave of changes to college football, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy asked some questions in return.
“Everything will be new and it’s fascinating to me now,” Gundy said. “As we move forward and get into players actually being employees, the issue will be, what do we do with the NCAA? Where do they stand? Because right now, they’re a non-factor.
“What role will they play as we migrate toward an NFL model? Will they actually be a factor or not. That’s what’s gonna be really interesting.”
Gundy and all college coaches await U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken’s signature on the settlement with the NCAA that will restructure the current landscape of name, image and likeness, and is expected to alter the limits of college football rosters.
“It all fascinates me to see what’s next,” Gundy said. “Nothing surprises me anymore. We’re trying to stay ahead of the game a little bit, which is difficult because we don’t know what the parameters are yet.
The timeline for the settlement to be enacted remains cloudy as the legal process plays out, but Gundy’s questions are valid.
The role of the NCAA continues to diminish within college football, and many have speculated that major-conference programs could break away from the organization in the future.
“It’s gonna change again,” Gundy said. “Players are gonna have employment contracts. There’s a whole line of things that are gonna fall in place here in the next 6-12 months, maybe 18 months.”
Gundy says discipline lacking in Saturday scrimmage
After his post-practice press conference wrapped up Saturday afternoon, Gundy turned toward a couple of media members and showed the hand-written list on the clipboard he had carried during the team’s scrimmage inside Boone Pickens Stadium.Those were the penalties that had been called during the workout, which was concerning for Gundy because of the veteran nature of his team.
“For the experience we have and where we’re at, we have way too many mistakes from a discipline standpoint,” Gundy said. “We need to become much more disciplined.
“I don’t see any passiveness with them in the way they’re practicing. But you can’t just turn it on in the last week.”
Gundy said the Cowboys will scrimmage again in the middle of the week, then once more next weekend before turning more thoroughly to game preparations. OSU opens the season against South Dakota State at 1 p.m. Aug. 31 at Boone Pickens Stadium.
OSU coaches researching impact of 2-minute warning
One of the lesser discussed rule changes that is coming to college football this year is the addition of a two-minute warning in each half.While the impact might seem minimal, Gundy says the research he and his staff have done suggest it is a bigger change than people might notice.
“We’ve had to get studies and research from NFL people to look at it,” Gundy said. “You wouldn’t think it’d be as big of an impact, but … so many scenarios can happen. And particularly in college.
“We’re in the process of studying it. We’re redoing all of our end-of-half and end-of-game sheets. We’ll have to be prepped for those in a lot of different ways, not just offensively, but defensively as well.”
