Holder Says Boynton Is ‘Perfectly Happy’ With $1 Million Salary

Mike Boynton will make about the same amount of money in the 2017-18 season — $1 million — that Brad Underwood did last year.

From a financial standpoint, that’s almost acceptable. There surely are quivers from fans of the Oklahoma State men’s basketball program, especially because the same amount of money is being given out to a coach who is factually far less qualified to fill the job of his predecessor.

But athletic director Mike Holder insinuated that Boynton won’t leave if he has success next season and demands money that won’t be given to him.

“Mike’s perfectly happy with $1 million,” Holder said after Boynton’s introductory news conference Monday. “And I think that’s fair for where he’s come from and where he’s starting in the profession.”

That was clearly Holder’s thinking when Underwood was signed for that much before his first season. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have offered it. But when Underwood won 20 games, the comfortability with a $1 million salary grew smaller and smaller as the days wore on.

You have to hope Holder isn’t setting himself up for Boynton to hit him with a crossover.

He said he is “absolutely not” worried that Boynton will chase money like Underwood did after year one, no matter the win total. The people who don’t understand that, don’t understand the qualities Holder is talking about, he said.

“(Boynton) trusts implicitly that if things improve like we expect them to, that he’ll be rewarded,” Holder said. “I had the same intention with Brad Underwood.”

Holder said Underwood just bounced. Holder “expected a conversation,” so he was “shocked” when he found out he had uprooted his negotiations with Holder for triple his previous year’s salary at Illinois.

“I fully expected him to retire at Oklahoma State University,” Holder said.

It can be argued his commitment to the sport has wavered because he did not hire or at least interview an outside candidate with coaching experience. It’s also fair to criticize because Holder didn’t roll out the $3 million like Underwood wanted.

But Holder said everyone, even the University of Texas, is operating under financial restraints, including OSU. But he reiterated several times that his commitment to basketball has never taken a hit, not even to the point of picking to invest in football or any other sport over hoops.

His response with a smile to those people saying he is cheap, or a “shriveled-up old fossil” as he was called in one email, was to, “Buy more tickets. Buy more season tickets. Donate more money. Talk passionately more often about OSU athletics. All that stuff matters. And as you increase our revenue, then we’ll have more to work with.”

OSU had $94 million revenue to work with last year, but Holder said people just don’t know and understand him. He said in looking at his history, it’s clear that he is about nothing but excellence not only in football, but also through the entire athletic department, including men’s basketball.

“The 51 championship banners in the arena speak volumes about the commitment to excellence at Oklahoma State University,” he said.

The most recent OSU championship team was an NCEA equestrian title in 2013. The men’s cross country team won a championship the year before. There have been seven national titles since Holder was named athletic director in 2005. None of which were for basketball, men’s nor women’s. In fact, OSU’s most recent basketball title was in 1946, when Holder was -2 years old.

Holder’s most successful basketball season from either team was the 2008-09 men’s season when Travis Ford’s Cowboys made it to the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament. Holder was hired Sept. 16, 2005, after Eddie Sutton’s group was knocked out of the Sweet Sixteen on March 24, 2005, under then-athletic director Harry Birdwell.

For Holder, though, he said it’s not about paying a man more, “simply because he has a job.” It’s about surrounding that coach with the resources and tools needed to succeed — not dollars. With that, he said, “We cut no corners.”

“I don’t think you measure a man by the number of zeros by the paycheck,” Holder said. “Trust me, when he proves on the court, through word and deed, that he deserves to be paid higher, there’s not any limits on what we’ll do.”