What if Mike Gundy Voluntarily Slashed His $5.25 Million Salary?

PFB Articles
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Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/what-if-mike-gundy-voluntarily-slashed-his-5-25-million-salary/

How this would help Oklahoma State.

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Let’s start with a haircut and go from there.

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Gundy has the bigger picture in mind. If you cut our salaries that will have a negative effect on the whole economy. Wow, what a greedy statement. First of all, no family needs $5 million bucks a year. And you don’t have to be a Socialist or a Communist to think that way about enough is sometimes enough and after that it is just gluttony.
The real question is, does Mike Holder have the courage to fiddle with Gundy’s salary?
Coach’s salaries are so strongly tied to egos. If you want to give me less, then I don’t feel appreciated around here any more. I guess I better go look for a greener pasture.
I would open the barn door and let him go find somewhere else to graze off the fat of the land. Since all of these coaches these days are grossly overpaid as it is, cutting their salaries is not really going to effect their lifestyle at all. Just bringing things back down more in line with reality. If a slash does happen at OSU and Gundy has a problem with it I would gladly start a Go Fund Me page for him.

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Would it be nice if he came out & voluntarily did it? Yes, of course. Should anyone challenge him publicly to do so? I’m not so sure.

My company recently announced an across-the-board decrease in everyone’s salary. It happened previously during the 2008 recession. We eventually got half of that 2008 cut back, but with that came no raises for a couple of years. This time around has been a bigger cut (to the tune of setting me back to salary levels from 4 to 5 years ago. Mean while, my health insurance costs have recently gone up and the rest of my liabilities have remained the same.

Although the salary reduction is a necessary measure (much better than suddenly being unemployed), it still has me questioning if the company partners should take a bigger percentage reduction in order to lessen the impact of the rest of us. But then I think about this: I have no idea what personal liabilities the company partners have in play.

I would like to think that Gundy is well beyond living “month-to-month,” and we can argue until his cows come home about if he is overpaid or not. Yes, he is a public figure in the sports world, so his salary is public (both as a matter of opinion and as a matter of fact), but I’ve heard it said more than once that you should never talk about another man’s money.

It would be great if he volunteered, and with the financial pressure on athletic deparments, it’s definitely the elephant in the room at a lot of schools. However, whether it was your intent or not, you’ve now suggested that he should. I would question if you would feel comfortable asking your boss at CBS to voluntarily take a pay cut? Or, more to the point, how would you feel if your employees at PFB put it out on social media that you, as the owner, should take voluntarily take a cut.

It’s an interesting question for sure, but I question if it’s one to be discussed in this manner.

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I think this is tantamount to Tim Duffie tweeting that Gundy should take a cut. I have no problem with a news organization covering sports media questioning whether I should take a pay cut.

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I have always believed that good leaders, have ‘intuition and proactivinessas’ as a couple of their many good characteristics …ie…they lead(er) …not wait(er) … personally, I’ve wondered if Gundy would be smart enough to get out in ‘in front’ on a topic that invariably would come up … predictably he has not … (to be fair…neither has a ton of other P5 coaches) …disappointing to say the least …

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How 'bout we just pay him $500K per win?

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Gundy giving up a year’s salary or a percentage of it is a non-starter. It’s not going to happen unless Holder forced him and other coaches across the board to do it. Cause you can’t just say only Gundy should do it. Every coach would have to give up some amount. Then if I’m Gundy, I’m asking why professor’s and other university employees aren’t sacrificing money as well. At that point, where does it stop? Should Hargis give a portion? Holder? Should they have to take a pay cut as well? How many should sacrifice financially and how much? Seems like this would lead to a lot more questions.

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Boise State did a furlough of everyone making more than $40k. Seemed pretty fair.

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That’s a fair perspective …however, I would NOT expect Gundy to give up a ‘full’ salary nor any other Coaches …additionally, the Athletic Dept is a completely different legal entity from the University so comparing Professors/Hargis would not be a fair expectation…but, it is a fair expectation for ‘ALL’ coaches (all sports) to give up a % of salary as well as all employees of the Athletic Dept…since salaries is the largest line item expense of the AD…Gundy did not give a ‘leaders’ response when given the opportunity…by comparisons, Holder gave up a year’s salary when all the capital was lost when BP Capital lost 60% of their value 1 year …

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I don’t see Mike Gundy or his staff taking a pay cut, nor should they. Matt Campbell seems like a bad comparison. He is one game above .500 as a Big 12 coach. He is not in the same ballpark as Mike Gundy when it comes to coaching. In relation to their body of work, Matt Campbell’s salary is far less commensurate than Mike Gundy’s salary.

I don’t want Mike Gundy to take less. I want him to have another 10+ win season next year.

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Ok if you don’t like the Matt Campbell comparison how 'bout Les Miles and Bill Self? Both of them have a National Championship and each of their body of work would be worlds higher than Gundy’s is above Campbell’s.

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For me, it doesn’t matter if Nick Saban takes a pay cut. I won’t be one of those people clamoring for Mike Gundy to take a pay cut. Mike Gundy is ready to go to work. He made that clear weeks ago. At that time you had people in the media criticizing him for putting together a plan to get back to work. Meanwhile, the Governor of Oklahoma releases a plan a couple weeks after Mike Gundy with the same start date. Bahahaha! Mike Gundy can’t seem to win with some of you. If he makes plans to get back to work you bedowngrade and belittle him, if he doesn’t physically go back to work (him and his staff are still working off campus) then you suggest a pay cut. Laughable.

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I think it would fine and would be a good move for hcmg to do this but at the end of the day I dont care. What would really impress me and make an impact on the program would be for him to move some of his salary to the budget for coordinators. It is pretty hollow to sit and complain about a lack of money for OC/DC relative to blue blood programs while you are making the kind of money hcmg does, and more importantly has over the past 15 years.

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Would it be a nice headline and do the University some good if he gave up some cash? Sure. For all we know, maybe he has. However, this is a strange article to write. “What if he took a pay cut”? TBH, it just seems like another veiled dig on Gundy from PFB. I love the blog, but I don’t love the Gundy take right now.

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None of this is true.

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Care to elaborate?

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  1. Nobody belittled him for making plans.
  2. Nobody suggested he should take a pay cut.
  3. Nobody suggested that a pay cut (that could be volunatarily taken) would be tied to performance.
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  1. I use the belittle word partly being funny. I think your article about Gundy being “Out of his World” was unfair. Just my opinion. Seems like most of your viewers agreed it was unfair.

  2. I didn’t know I suggested you suggested he SHOULD take a pay cut.
    I simply wouldn’t want Mike Gundy’s pay to be cut whether it be under pressure or voluntarily.

  3. Fair point. I was just voicing my opinion that given the option of Matt Campbell or Mike Gundy as my football coach I would take Mike Gundy everytime.

I like the work you do Kyle. I especially like reading about recruiting news and the non revenue OSU sports. Personally, I don’t want to see the site turn into a place to bash Mike Gundy all the time. Keep it fair, keep up the good work.

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Nothing wrong with bashing Gundy if the shoe fits wear it.
If the opinions about Gundy seem inappropriate then they will be ignored by the readers.
It might help Gundy as a person and as a coach if he checked in with this website and read the feedback about himself.
My opinion of him is that he is grossly overpaid as I think every Division One coach probably is. I think they worked harder to keep their jobs when they were paid $10,000 a year, long ago.
And I say this at the same time that I admit that I like Gundy. I was at OSU when Phil Cutchins was the coach. So Mike Gundy seems like Vince Lombardi when compared to some of the bums that OSU has paid over the years. In the modern era we have had just 3 really good coaches: Jimmy Johnson, Les Miles and Mike Gundy. The rest were either mediocre or just plain ineffective.