Oklahoma State Sets NCAA NIL Record With 64 Players Leaving

There’s an odd symmetry to college football sometimes. While one fanbase is grumbling about a 25-year title drought, another saw its entire roster almost evaporate in a single offseason.

After receiving a few emails about yesterday's OU blog that merely pointed out the obvious, fair is fair, and I can talk about my chosen team in kind. Here goes.

Oklahoma State football just lived through one of the strangest stretches any Power Four program has ever seen. The Cowboys set a new all-time record for transfer portal departures in a single cycle... 64 players are leaving the program. That's a new record.

Yes, This Is Chaos

To be fair, the staff that recruited this class of Cowboy footballers is gone. When they fired coach Mike Gundy, the response was inevitable. You almost have to give those boys credit for sticking out the season.

1-11 is where the Pokes finished out 2025. Long-time fans already know it's the second worst season in OSU history, only behind the 0-10-1 1991 season, which includes a fun fact. Mike Gundy was the QB during the 1991 season.

Can you blame these free agents for leaving? They're paid professionals now, you'd do the same if you could work for a better company, maybe squeezing a raise in the process.

Sixty-Four of Them Though...

It's a staggering number, but numbers only tell part of the story.

On the flip side of the great OSU exodus, 54 newcomers are on their way into Stillwater via the portal, including some real difference-makers like a highly productive quarterback and skill players who could potentially make people take notice.

That is not a trivial turnaround. In fact, it’s the most portal additions of any overhaul in the country right now, and the class OSU is putting together ranks among the best in the nation.

So what do you do with all of this? You look at the bigger picture.

Yes, this was messy. Yes, losing that many players looks like a disaster on paper. But the magnitude of turnover OSU just went through doesn't happen without reason, and that reason was a long-running program identity crisis that finally came to a head.

Die A Hero, Or Live Long Enough To Become The Villain

There is a very long list of issues that fans, boosters, and probably the administration had with Mike Gundy. He seems like the type that always needs a villain, and after picking fights with the media, his fans, his players, and ultimately the NIL system as a whole, he was on borrowed time regardless.

Rumor was that some of the boosters were withholding some insanely rich NIL contributions, hung on the condition Gundy had to go.

The Disloyal and Untrue Among Us

It's a shame we had to watch it all happen, but from the ashes shall rise a phoenix. They're building something new in Stillwater for the first time in twenty years.

There’s pain in a record like 1-11. There’s a lot of frustration in seeing the team that practically inherited the Big 12 turn over and die the moment the better competition left for the SEC... But there’s also opportunity in the great Cowboy Failure of 2025.

It would be unfair to expect new head coach Eric Morris to come into 2026 with guns blazing and a perfect season. As awesome as that would be for the most deserving fanbase in college football, the benchmark has naturally been set.

Since everything about Oklahoma college football boils down to Bedlam, Brent Venables first season at OU saw a Nebraska-esque record of 6-6. Our Cowboys should aim for the moon this year, and deliver at least a 7-5 season if Eric Morris doesn't want Cowboy fans to sink to the toxic Sooner state of fanhood... Bonus points if they win their bowl game.

Go Pokes!