College Football

Oklahoma State debuts NIL QR codes on helmets one day after Mike Gundy's anti-NIL rant

Updated Aug. 20, 2024 12:33 p.m. ET

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy has had enough of the distractions that go along with this new era of college football.

There's so much to navigate now with the transfer portal and name, image and likeness deals, and Gundy has drawn the line.

"I told the players there’s no negotiating now," he said. "Portal’s over. All negotiation’s history. Now we’re playing football. Just coaching and playing football."

Gundy has turned the focus to the Aug. 31 opener at home against South Dakota State.

"The business side of what we do now is, we have to have those conversations with them," he said. "Tell your agent to quit calling us and asking for more money. It’s non-negotiable now. Start again in December."

In the meantime, Gundy and Oklahoma State appear to be pulling out all the stops to be ready to pay players when that time comes after the season. The Cowboys will have scannable QR codes on the back of their helmets this year that link to a donation page for Oklahoma State's NIL collective, a first-of-its-kind innovation in the changing college football landscape.

Meanwhile, Gundy has reason to be excited about the actuallfootball his team will play this year. Led by running back Ollie Gordon II, the Cowboys enter the season ranked No. 17 in the AP Top 25 and No. 15 in the FOX Sports Ultimate 134 rankings from RJ Young.

Gordon won the Doak Walker Award last season as the nation's best running back, and he is the Big 12's preseason offensive player of the year. He could have left, but he chose to stick around and play for a team with a significant amount of returning talent.

Oklahoma State should be a contender for the Big 12 title and a spot in the College Football Playoff.

"You can tell the team is really hungry," Gordon said on media day. "We have a lot of returners back and we can’t be complacent. I feel like we haven’t shown any part of being complacent. We’ve all been practicing like we haven’t been here before and it’s been a really great thing."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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