Daily Bullets (May 9): Balancing the Athletics Budget, OSU Splits with Arizona State

Thanks for stopping by – here’s your daily dose of Oklahoma State sports news.

Three Thoughts

• The Cowgirls struggled to get back into the game last night, losing 11-7 to Arizona State, ending the girls’ run in the conference tournament, while the Pokes rallied to beat ranked Arizona State on the road, 9-6 (PFB)

• It’s reasonable for these framing conversations to start popping up – Mike Gundy’s era rewrote the Cowboy record books (PFB)

• OSU isn’t taking a $30m high-interest loan from a conference partner – instead, here’s how they’re looking to cut expenses and increase revenue:

To try to level that playing field as much as possible, (Chad) Weiberg said OSU has asked all of its programs to cut expenses by 10%, OSU has increased ticket prices and the Boys From Oklahoma concerts have also helped with that. It’s an uphill battle, but Weiberg noted that OSU has had to compete with the likes of Texas, one of the highest-funded athletic departments in the country, for years. [PFB]

Two Quotes

• Excellent work by Josh Holliday and Co. turning around this season:

In its latest Projected Field of 64, @d1baseball has #OkState (31-17, 14-10 Big 12) as a 2-seed in Texas A&M’s regional.

The Cowboys — 10-3 over their last 13 — are scorching hot heading into May. Nothing new here. https://t.co/OcL2D1A06p pic.twitter.com/hRntX2dztC — Daniel Allen (@bydanielallen25) May 5, 2026

• This is so fascinating – was there just a donor who was super interested in women’s basketball? For OSU to own the portal in two non-revenue sports (wrestling and women’s basketball) is super unique in this day and age.

𝙏𝙤𝙥 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨! The nation’s No. 1 portal class according to ESPN resides in Stillwater! 🔗 https://t.co/xQg8z8pAF5#GoPokes pic.twitter.com/3WHnLrbmWb

— OSU Cowgirl Basketball (@OSUWBB) May 6, 2026

One Question

• Random hypothetical – if OSU took the high-interest loan ($30M @ 10%?) and paid it out to the best college basketball team they could buy with the money – do you think it would produce more than $33M in revenue that otherwise wouldn’t be created?

Non-OSU Bullets

• The Thunder has a 7.1% chance at getting a top-four pick (and a 1.5% chance of number one overall) in tomorrow’s lottery • Fight sin by feasting on God’s goodness (faith-based)