Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy: Oklahoma, Texas 'took a lot of history' out of Big 12, college football

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Oklahoma and Texas left the Big 12 to join the SEC, according to Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy.

Cut to the chase. Gundy said that the athletic departments would be secure for the next 12 to 15 years. They did it for the money and took a lot of history out of college football with them.

They aren't the first to do it. When Texas A&M moved to the SEC, they did the same thing.

Gundy led Oklahoma State to a 12 win season a year ago and a Fiesta Bowl victory over Notre Dame. One of the last Bedlam games will most likely be Oklahoma State's 37-33 victory over Oklahoma.

When they went to the SEC, they made that decision. It isn't going to be doable. I'm pretty sure the SEC will play nine conference games in 2036. The media will kill them if they don't. The fans would love to play Bedlam, but the people who make the decisions are not going to allow that.

There are some great rivalries and a lot of history.

The Big 12 isn't going anywhere and Gundy isn't worried about the teams losing their brand names.

That's going to stay that way. They're always going to talk about brands, and there are always going to be teams that get ranked in the preseason because people think they're going to be a Top 25 team. Those polls are meaningless. Our brand is growing because nothing matters until the end of the season.

We don't have a logo like Texas' or Notre Dame's, but we're making progress.

Oklahoma State has beaten Texas in eight of the past 12 meetings and lost once in Austin.

"The Big 12 is going to be fine, and I'm just giving you my opinion and know people get upset with my opinion, but we were fortunate that the two teams that left did it when they did," Gundy said.

The four teams that will join the Big 12 can compete at any level, according to Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy.

He said that they have great television markets in different parts of the country. The SEC and Big Ten are going to be strong, but after that, we're not far away.

When Gundy questioned why OU and Texas representatives were allowed to attend business meetings, he didn't know why he hurt their feelings.

He said he was just calling it that. If two software companies in the Silicon Valley are fighting for leverage through technology, and one of them gets a new technology that could be worth $1 billion in sales, why would they share that with the other companies?

I said it jokingly, but I am not in the meetings. We don't get anything done during the meeting with head coaches and athletic directors. There are too many people in a single room. This is a fact. The decisions are ultimately made by the president. There are no decisions made by the coaches.

Gundy is one of only six active FBS coaches with more than 30 career wins against ranked teams. Gundy received a new five-year contract worth $33.25 million in the first five years, with a $1 million stay bonus if he's still the coach at the end of the year.

It's a contract that Gundy said is a lifetime deal and that he has never felt more comfortable with the administration at Oklahoma State.

Over the last six or eight years, OU has been more successful than any other team in the league. We have a chance with our new administration to push for things and keep this program at a high level. I have had some other offers, but I don't think about them anymore. This is where I come from.

Gundy said that the most powerful figure at the university for decades was the late T. Boone Pickens and that he was incredibly supportive with the money he poured into athletics. Gundy said it was difficult to coach here because of Pickens' control from a distance.

Gundy said that the job he was interviewing for was a gold mine. He joked that he couldn't remember the years he talked to Tennessee because they had so many different coaches.

"That's why I'm so thankful for the continuity and stability that we have at this place," Gundy said. People stay. There's a lot left out there for us because they stay here.