Daily Bullets (February 22)

Paying Underwood

Great column by Bill Haisten outlining Josh Holliday’s new deal and what should happen with Brad Underwood.

You have to presume that other athletic directors are aware both of Underwood’s wherewithal and his current pay. OSU fans would be livid if their immediately popular basketball coach were lured elsewhere by a more lucrative offer.

Underwood is scheduled to make $1.1 million next season, $1.2 million in 2018-19, $1.4 million in 2019-20 and $1.6 million in 2020-21. [Tulsa World]

There is a way to do this, of course, that doesn’t include a 10-year contract.

The 10 Teams That Could Win It All

Six. More. Months.

No path is easy, but Oklahoma State has a less complicated road to the CFP than its chief rival. The key for Mike Gundy’s club is surviving the games prior to Oklahoma.

From Sep. 16 to Oct. 28, the team will alternate away and home games with Pitt, TCU, Texas Tech and Baylor before traveling to Texas and West Virginia. The Cowboys will then host the Bedlam game. [B/R]

It really is like 2011. There’s, what, a 50-50 chance OSU finishes in the top four after a 11-1ish season? Of course knowing OSU we will probably have already wasted our one top-four back in 2011 when the playoff didn’t exist.

Attendance Rising

Good breakdown of the GIA attendance numbers here. OSU has been hurt by the non-conference doubt from fans. Next year will certainly rock.

So even though Brad Underwood has resurrected the program from how Ford left it, the attendance numbers just aren’t quite there yet. Give it time though. This is the first year of Underwood’s tenure. There have been three sellouts of GIA this year with two games to go. There was never more than four sellouts in one season in the past decade, but Underwood may just do it this year. If they sell out GIA against Texas Tech and Kansas both, Underwood will have more sellouts in one year than OSU has had in the past three years. [CRFF]

How To Handle OU

Good stuff from Jake Trotter here on how OSU can win the Big 12.

First of all, by not changing who they are in Bedlam. Usually otherwise bold offensively, Oklahoma State has gone conservative against the Sooners, notably in 2013 and 2016, when Big 12 titles have been on the line. [ESPN]

Literally nobody who watches OSU games disagrees.

Gundy on Marketing

He said he knew the importance of the dual featuring the top two teams in the country and wanted to find a way to promote the match. His Twitter account came to mind.

“I have 78,000 people that are on my Twitter. Followers, I guess. Is that the correct term?” Gundy said. “I said ‘I can put something out, and even if a thousand people pick up on it and show up, it’s worth it.’ I had a lot of free time last week, so I started thinking about ways to do it and get people’s attention and got to the singlet.

“Then it got to the desk and the Blair Witch approach and then it just grew from there.” [O’Colly]

Only a matter of time before a big national firm comes to hire that man.

Where Titles Are Won

Robert Allen reports from competition days.

“These guys really competed, those two teams battling for the championship they were going from the start to the finish,” assistant strength coach Mark Smith said. “What we do in the workouts in the weight room and on the field and then Friday mornings in the stadium (stadium steps), that is a grind. This is more like what they do on the field in the fall, this is competition and they love it. It is really good for them and for the team as a whole.” [Go Pokes – $]

OSU and NCAA Notes

OSU already sold out the Kansas game … That is a headline …

OSU fourth on this list. I’m (obviously) incredibly biased, but I would take them in the top two or three.

Ranking the Big 12's football-basketball coaching duos for 2017: @OU_Football & @OU_MBBall own the top spot https://t.co/pebKL0vewE pic.twitter.com/CAo0WdDkFt

— Athlon Sports (@AthlonSports) February 21, 2017

Ramon!

And yet, Gundy might not have had the best hair at the #okstate facility today. Ramon Richards' style… pic.twitter.com/XK1HPwJHv3

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) February 22, 2017

What You Missed On PFB

• Rudolph’s Heisman odds fall.
• We interviewed a top Texas HS point guard about Bedlam.
• OSU has the highest-scoring offense in school history.
• New pod talking Bedlam and ranking the OSU coaches.
• Brad Underwood poised for possible emotional homecoming.
• Gundy talks mullets with Barry Melrose.

More Stuff I’m Reading

How KD became Silicon Valley’s hottest start-up … this is strangely mesmerizing.