Gundy might have blocked Lunt because Big 12 has vendetta against SEC

It’s true.

Travis Haney wrote the following in this ESPN Insider article today:

I was told by one coach that the across-the-board SEC ban was related to a growing irritation by Big 12 coaches toward the SEC. (See: Bob Stoops’ comments and Charlie Weis agreeing with him.) What’s sparking that? The coach wasn’t quite sure but thought it was sort of an aggregated aggravation.

The indication is that Gundy was, more or less, acting on behalf of the entire conference. But keeping Lunt from the entire Pac-12? That didn’t make sense to the coach I was speaking with.

In case you’ve been living in a cave since the title game (justifiable, I admit), here’s what Stoops said about the SEC in May:

So you’re listening to a lot of propaganda that gets fed out to you. You can look at the top two, three, four, five, six teams, and you can look at the bottom six, seven, eight, whatever they are. How well are they all doing?

And when you look at the entire offseason, Gundy blocking Lunt from SEC schools kind of makes sense — we saw Charlie Weis stand up for Stoops (as Haney mentioned) then Stoops stand up for Gundy today re: Lunt.

Millionaires unite!

I can see Gundy as a sort of middling mouthpiece for Stoops and Mack Brown vs. SEC country. He strikes me as the kind of guy who enjoys the praise of his elite colleagues — though I admit blocking Wes Lunt from attending, say, Ole Miss is kind of a strange way to show it.

And like Haney wrote, it still doesn’t explain the Pac-12/Southern Miss thing.

To be continued…