Oregon coach Dan Lanning shot back at Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy’s insinuation the Ducks are buying their way into contention with an excessive roster budget.

“Like I said, I’ve got a ton of respect for coach Gundy,” Lanning said as the Ducks prepare for their nonconference meeting with Oklahoma State. “Ultimately, how blessed are we being at a place that’s invested in winning? If you want to be a top-10 team in college football, you better be invested in winning and we spend to win. Some people save to have an excuse for why they don’t.”

Gundy lit the fuse with comments on his radio show suggesting the Cowboys’ budget for football was pennies on the dollar compared to what Oregon spent last year alone.

“We spent around $7 million over the last three years, and I think Oregon spent close to $40 (million) last year alone,” Gundy said. “That was just one year. Now, I might be off a few million. What I’m saying is they’re spending a lot of money. There’s some schools that are doing that.”

Oklahoma State kicked off the season with a win over Tennessee-Martin last week and Oregon defeated Montana State.

Also on his show, Gundy opined college football non-conference schedules should evolve to match the times, pairing opponents based strictly on their annual football budget.

“Oregon is paying a lot, a lot of money for their team. So from a non-conference standpoint, there are coaches saying they should play teams that are spending the same amount of money,” he said.

Lanning was an outside linebackers coach at Georgia in 2018 when these two programs signed to play a home-and-home series. But he doesn’t necessarily buy that Oklahoma State wants to check receipts to confirm a level playing field.

“I can’t speak on their situation, I have no idea what they got in their pockets over there,” Lanning said. “I’m sure UT Martin maybe didn’t have as much as them last week and they played, so we’ll let it play out.”

–Field Level Media