Mike Gundy: NCAA would’ve suspended Oklahoma State players for wearing QR code

Mike Gundy revealed why Oklahoma State ended up removing the QR codes from the helmets following the NCAA’s involvement.

The Cowboys head coach revealed players would’ve been suspended if they remained on the uniform. And that’s exactly what Gundy chalked it up to: a uniform issue.

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Gundy still doesn’t quite understand the involvement by the NCAA however.

“They called me and said that the NCAA had met and said it was a uniform violation,” Gundy said. “And that it was punishable by the players being suspended if we put the QR codes on the helmets. Now, I read the rule. I think it’s judgmental based on if it ever went to a court of law. It’s pretty vague, and all we’re trying to do is the most we can do to maximize our players opportunities with fans across the world that don’t have a chance to be involved if they’re not local, and they felt like that, it was a uniform violation, because it had a social media handle to it. 

“Which, in my opinion, is not because there’s nothing that has anything to do with the social media on the QR code. We had it everywhere. So you can do it. Yeah, we had it. We have it.”

Gundy mentioned the QR codes for players weren’t just on helmets either.

“You know, it’s in these restaurants, it’s in bars, it’s all over campus,” Gundy said. “There is a link on social media, but that is not on the QR code. So Thursday night, the guy that watches it for us, he was texting me, and people were sending money to it at some bar, made several $1,000 on it.

“I don’t know who it was, maybe they were watching a game and thought it was us playing. I don’t know, but somebody was lighting it up on Thursday night, but they said it was a uniform violation. So I don’t agree with that.”

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Gundy wanted to take any punishment if it meant the QR codes could remain. But that was not an option, at least for the first game.

“But what I didn’t want to do is take a chance on them trying to drop the hammer on a player, because that wouldn’t be fair to the player,” Gundy said. “Now, if it was me, if they were going to drop the hammer on me, I don’t care, I would have wore it. But I don’t want a player to get penalized for something like that. 

“So I just said it’s not worth it, because, you know, I don’t know what authority they have anymore, but I just don’t want to take a chance on them trying to penalize a player for something that we could avoid.”

As far as the players getting those QR codes back on the helmets or use them in a different way, Gundy said he is “working on it.”