Paul Finebaum rips Mike Gundy's decision to publicly put the halt on NIL discussions

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy made some interesting comments this week that raised eyebrows across the sport, when he essentially told recruits and prospective players to stop asking for money right now as the season gets set to start.

Gundy’s point was that the focus is shifting to football here in the next week or two as the games begin, and there will be time for negotiating NIL deals after the season.

Of course, it might not be spun that way in headlines. And there’s real, tangible danger in that.

Discussing the topic on the Paul Finebaum Show on Tuesday, the host raised some interesting points when a caller named “Sooner” chimed in. First and foremost, Finebaum questioned why Gundy would be so bold as to make those claims.

“To me, it’s all negative because if you’re a player in Oklahoma City or Tulsa or Texas, and you’re thinking about going to a school and your head coach – who’s already known for being on the edge – just literally comes after players for asking for money, then why would you go there?” Finebaum wondered out loud.

It’s one of those situations where there are probably dozens of coaches across the country thinking the same exact thing as Mike Gundy… only they didn’t venture to say it.

There’s just relatively little upside to doing so.

“The real problem, Sooner — and even if you’re saying, ‘Man, he makes a lot of sense. I wish my son could play for him’ — that’s not where the action is right now,” Finebaum said. “And what happens is, we’re in a headline-dominated world where everybody in high school now or anywhere else is gonna look at Mike Gundy as a grump. ‘He’s not the guy you want to play for.’ So you just check him off your list.

“And that program’s already in enough trouble because losing Oklahoma from the Big 12 is a big blow to Oklahoma State’s self-worth. … I’ve been to Stillwater. It’s an interesting place to go to a game. But why in the world would you go play for Mike Gundy when you can play in Norman for a coach who understands where college football is today?”

That’s a pretty scathing review from one of college football’s most notable analysts.

Again, just a matter of when to say certain things, for Finebaum.

“I mean, I’m conflicted,” Finebaum said. “Yeah, sure, it’s great to hear a coach speak the truth. But you can’t speak the truth anymore because that’s not where college football is, so why would you do that?”