By Mike Finger | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-09-20 15:41:00
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
2025年9月6日，星期六，在俄勒冈州尤金市举行的一场NCAA大学橄榄球比赛的上半场，俄克拉荷马州立大学主教练迈克·冈迪在场上行走。(美联社照片/Lydia Ely)
时间回到2020年4月的第一周，迈克·冈迪 (Mike Gundy) 正变得焦躁不安。
俄克拉荷马州立大学，和全美大多数高校一样，因新冠疫情关闭了不到一个月。但这位橄榄球主教练希望他的球员们尽快返校，并解释说他有一个压倒一切的理由。
“因为我们需要继续预算，并让资金在俄克拉荷马州内运转起来，”冈迪说道。
回过头来看，这句引言之所以引人注目，与扭曲的价值观或是流行病学毫无关系。从本质上讲，冈迪的解释围绕着一个简单的认知：他的球员们提供了一种经济服务。
学校，以及许多与之相关的人，都因为球员们的存在而赚得盆满钵满。换句话说，冈迪当时的意思是，大学橄榄球运动员拥有巨大的价值。
至少在这一点上，他没说错。
他本该记住这一点。
而他的同行们最好也记住这一点。
周五晚上，冈迪执教的牛仔队在主场耻辱性地输给了塔尔萨大学，而最糟糕的是，这个结果几乎没有让任何人感到意外。俄克拉荷马州立大学，这支在21年前聘请冈迪并由此开启了队史最成功时代的球队，如今已经连续11场输给大学橄榄球顶级分区的对手。
在连续18个赛季杀入18场碗赛之后，冈迪的球队去年在Big 12联盟的战绩是尴尬的0胜9负，而且没人能保证他下周还能撑到俄克拉荷马州立大学的分区揭幕战。如果你想知道局势为何会如此迅速地分崩离析，最好的总结来自几个月前冈迪接受网站On3的一次采访。
在谈到近年来兴起的姓名、形象和肖像权 (NIL) 报酬、转会门户以及收入分成时，冈迪承认他当初太不愿意去拥抱一个新时代了。
“我当时几乎就在想，‘这会过去的。这肯定不会持久，’”冈迪告诉On3。“但随后，这股势头却越来越猛。”
而当他意识到球员们比2007年时拥有了更多话语权时——那一年，冈迪在赛后的一次咆哮中喊出了那句著名的“我是个男人！我40岁了！”——为时已晚。阵容建设的损害已经铸成。不仅Big 12联盟的其他球队正在超越俄克拉荷马州立大学，就连像塔尔萨大学这样的小球会也是如此——他们自1951年以来就没在斯蒂尔沃特赢过球，却在周五的比赛中全方位压制了牛仔队。
当一支球队的教练选择抱怨变革而非适应变革时，这就是会发生的故事。
冈迪年薪超过600万美元，并曾不止一次在自己的名字与其他职位空缺联系在一起后，从俄克拉荷马州立大学获得大幅加薪。他长期以来一直对球员转会现象的增多感到悲叹，将其归咎于他所谓的“自由主义”和“权利意识”，认为这导致了一个“人们不愿做出承诺的世界”。
2025年9月6日，星期六，在南卡罗来纳州克莱姆森市，克莱姆森大学对阵特洛伊大学的一场NCAA大学橄榄球比赛中，克莱姆森大学主教练达博·斯威尼凝视着场上。(美联社照片/Jacob Kupferman)
与此同时，年薪1150万美元的克莱姆森大学主教练达博·斯威尼 (Dabo Swinney)，这位曾发誓如果大学球员获得报酬就辞职的教练，或许是这项运动中最抵制转会门户的人。他执教的老虎队曾在2015至2019赛季赢得两次全国冠军并四次杀入冠军赛，但今年他们在前三场比赛中输掉了两场，并在周六对阵雪城大学的比赛中早早地给自己挖了个大坑。
对于冈迪和斯威尼来说，自从Cracker Barrel餐厅短暂更换其标志以来，这可能是他们经历过的最痛苦的周末了。
然而，在大学橄榄球的世界里，旧时光不会再回来了，无论像冈迪和斯威尼这样的人有多么希望。或许还需要一段时间球员才会被正式归类为雇员，但NIL报酬和收入分成的资金模式已经成为定局。而那些不愿拥抱这一点的学校，终将被甩在身后。
在所有人当中，冈迪没能立刻认识到这一点，至今仍令人费解。毕竟，他在俄克拉荷马州立大学的成功，恰逢亿万富翁、超级捐助者T·布恩·皮肯斯 (T. Boone Pickens) 对该项目的基建设施进行巨额财政投资。现在，冈迪竟然有脸抱怨像俄勒冈大学这样的学校花钱？
在那次On3的采访中，冈迪称他最近一批签约球员是“（俄克拉荷马州立大学）有史以来第一批‘买来’的球员。”
撇开这种措辞的怪异之处不谈（大学会“买”教授、助教、清洁工或任何其他提供服务的人吗？），这或许不是一个教练应该做出的最明智的吹嘘。
尤其对于一位曾有意无意地指出大学橄榄球运动员拥有巨大价值的教练而言。
而他随后却迅速地将这一点置之不理。
点击查看原文：Amid Mike Gundy's misery, a reminder of college players' value
Amid Mike Gundy’s misery, a reminder of college players’ value
Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy walks on the field during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Lydia Ely)
It was the first week of April in 2020, and Mike Gundy was getting antsy.
Oklahoma State, like most universities across the country, had been shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic for less than a month. But the head football coach wanted his players back on campus as soon as possible, and he explained he had one overriding reason for this.
“Because we need to continue to budget and run money through the state of Oklahoma,” Gundy said.
In retrospect, what makes that quote notable has nothing to do with skewed priorities or epidemiology. Essentially, Gundy’s explanation revolved around a simple acknowledgement: His players provided an economic service.
The school, and plenty of people associated with it, made lots and lots of money based on their presence. In other words, Gundy was saying college football players had tremendous value.
On that point, at least, he wasn’t wrong.
He should have remembered that.
And his contemporaries would be wise to remember it, too.
Friday night, Gundy’s Cowboys suffered an embarrassing home loss to Tulsa, and the worst part about it was that it surprised approximately nobody. Oklahoma State, whose hiring of Gundy 21 years ago began the most successful era in the history of the program, has lost 11 games in a row to opponents in college football’s top subdivision.
After advancing to 18 bowl games in 18 seasons, Gundy’s team went 0-9 in the Big 12 last year, and there’s no guarantee he’ll make it to Oklahoma State’s conference opener next week. And if you’re wondering how things fell apart so fast, the best summary comes from an interview Gundy gave the website On3 a couple of months ago.
Speaking about the rise of name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation, the transfer portal, and revenue-sharing in recent years, Gundy admitted he was too reluctant to embrace a new era.
“I almost just thought, ‘This will go away. Surely this won’t last,’” Gundy told On3. “And then it just kept building momentum.”
And by the time he realized players had more leverage than they did back in 2007, when Gundy famously screamed, “I’m a man! I’m 40!” in a postgame tirade? The roster-building damage had been done. Not only was the rest of the Big 12 passing Oklahoma State by, but so were smaller programs like Tulsa, which hadn’t won in Stillwater since 1951 but bullied the Cowboys all over the field Friday.
This is what happens to programs with coaches who prefer to complain about change instead of adapting to it.
Gundy, who makes more than $6 million per year and more than once scored big raises from Oklahoma State after his name was linked to other job openings, long has lamented the rise in player transfers, blaming what he called “liberalism” and a “sense of entitlement” for “a world where people are noncommittal.”
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney looks on during an NCAA college football game between Clemson and Troy, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Clemson, S.C. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)
Meanwhile, Dabo Swinney, the $11.5-million-per-year Clemson coach who once swore he’d quit his job if college players were paid, might be the most portal-resistant man in the sport. His Tigers, who won two national championships and played in four title games in the 2015-’19 seasons, lost two of their first three games this year and dug themselves in an early hole against Syracuse on Saturday.
For Gundy and Swinney, this might have been the most traumatic weekend they’ve had since Cracker Barrel briefly changed its logo.
In college football, though, the old days aren’t coming back, no matter how much guys like Gundy and Swinney want them to. It might be a while before players are classified as employees, but NIL and revenue-sharing money is here to stay. And the schools who don’t embrace that will be left behind.
That Gundy, of all people, didn’t recognize this right away remains confounding. After all, his success at Oklahoma State coincided with massive financial investment in the program’s infrastructure by billionaire megadonor T. Boone Pickens. Now Gundy has the audacity to complain about schools like Oregon spending money?
In that On3 interview, Gundy called his most recent group of signees “the first class (Oklahoma State) ever bought.”
Aside from the weirdness of that language (do colleges “buy” professors, or assistant coaches, or janitors, or anyone else who provides a service?) that’s probably not the wisest boast for a coach to make.
Especially a coach who, intentionally or not, once made a point about college football players’ tremendous value.
And then promptly ignored it.
By Mike Finger, via San Antonio Express-News