Mike Gundy not suspending Ollie Gordon signifies power shift in college football | Golden

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy was brutally honest Tuesday regarding his own past actions when discussing the decision not to suspend star running back Ollie Gordon after his recent arrest on a DUI charge, but his decision hints at a much bigger issue.

Players have the power now.

Gordon was part of the Oklahoma State contingent at Big 12 media days in Las Vegas despite his June 30 arrest in Oklahoma when officers observed his car swerving and driving in excess of 80 mph on a highway with a speed limit of 65. They found half-empty bottles of tequila and vodka in the car.

Suspending Gordon for a game or two would have been the obvious punishment, but Gundy threw a massive curveball with his decision to apparently not take away playing time.

Then this: "I’m not justifying what Ollie did; I’m telling you what decision I made," Gundy said. "I thought, ‘OK, I’ve probably done that 1,000 times in my life, and it was just fine, so I got lucky. People get lucky.’“

So you might have driven under the influence, Coach? Check.

Probably a thousand times? Gulp.

Gundy has to be smart enough to know that two wrongs don’t make a right. If anything, giving his best player a pass is further proof that coaches no longer have absolute power when it comes to dealing with their star athletes in this NIL era. It’s not a stretch to assume Gordon is one of the highest-paid players on the Stillwater campus, as his value was listed at $610,000 after he announced during bowl season that he would return to the Cowboys for his senior season.

To his credit, Gordon decided to attend media days.

“I apologize for my actions, the mistakes I made,” Gordon said. “It wasn’t good. Every action has a consequence. I just need to apologize to my family and my team for my actions. I just hope that I can get back on a good track and good terms with all of them.”

Of course, the Doak Walker Award winner’s presence on the field is critical to the Cowboys’ success one year after they lost to Texas in the Big 12 title game.

While Gundy’s remarks were pretty reckless — he attempted to clarify his remarks on X, but it didn’t stop the groundswell of criticism — it drives home the point that coaches no longer just answer to their athletic directors. College football is a billion-dollar business, and players are no longer unpaid employees. The best ones make big money, and with those salaries provided by collectives come the expectation that they will be in uniform on Saturdays come hell or high water.

Of more immediate concern is whether Gordon’s poor judgment was a one-off or a sign of a bigger problem. Worse yet, the young man could have killed himself or others on that highway. Gordon, at 20, isn’t even of legal age to drink, something his 56-year-old coach didn’t mention.

As it turns out, Gundy has deemed Gordon's actions not worthy of a suspension. 

Young people make mistakes all the time, but in the best cases, an adult sends the right message with strong discipline.

Not this time.