Oklahoma State Fires Mike Gundy, Eating $15 Million Buyout

Oklahoma State fired head football coach Mike Gundy on Tuesday after two decades and 170 wins with the Cowboys.

The team has a 1–2 record to start the season after losing to Tulsa on Saturday. It marked the team’s 11th consecutive loss to FBS programs. The 3–9 record in 2024 was a steep fall from grace after making the Big 12 title game in 2023.

Oklahoma State renegotiated Gundy’s contract after last season to reduce his pay and buyout. The school will owe its winningest coach a $15 million buyout. Had they not renegotiated, the buyout would’ve been $25.3 million.

ESPN first reported the news.

Gundy, 58, has led the Cowboys since 2005, making 18 bowl appearances in his 20 full seasons at the helm. The Big 12 named Gundy its conference Coach of the Year three times, most recently in 2023. He was the second-longest tenured coach in college football behind Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz. On Monday, he said he “100 percent” wanted to keep coaching at Oklahoma State past the 2025 season.

Oklahoma State struggled to adjust to the new era of college athletics. Last year, Gundy quipped about name, image, and likeness negotiations ending once football season began: “Tell your agent to quit calling us and asking for more money.” His program then tried to put QR codes linking to the school’s NIL collective on players’ helmets, but the NCAA shot them down.

Earlier this summer, Gundy peeled back the curtain on the team’s NIL strategy, saying at first he thought “this will go away.” He told On3 this was the first offseason Oklahoma State had “bought portal kids,” a decision he said hurt their depth last year.

“That was really kind of my fault, because what I had done was taken money that had been raised through donations and spread it amongst the troops somewhat evenly to the current players,” Gundy said. “We didn’t go out and solicit for players and pay them to come to our team. We did that starting in December, which I think we all would agree, if you don’t do that, you’re not going to survive.”

Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg alluded to the NIL race in a statement about Gundy’s firing.

“College football has changed drastically in the last few years, and the investment needed to compete at the highest level has never been more important,” Weiberg said. “Moving forward, it is critical for our fans, alumni and donors to align behind Cowboy Football. This is a pivotal moment, the stakes have never been higher and we need everyone on board.”

Gundy played quarterback for the Cowboys from 1986 to 1989 with teammates Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders. He joined the coaching staff as an assistant after graduating, and made stops at Baylor and Maryland before coming back to Stillwater.