Mike Gundy has a blunt message to players: Tell your agent negotiations are over

Mike Gundy is on the cusp of his 20th season atop the Oklahoma State football program, making him major college football's second-longest tenured coach and lending him rarified status for his two-decade run atop his alma mater.

Gundy has contributed to the game's evolutions with his innovative offenses and, despite myriad entreaties to leave, has remained loyal to the Cowboys.

He also has, refreshingly, continued to speak his mind.

Gundy's doing so again now as his Oklahoma State team sits 15 days from its season-opening home game against perennial FCS powerhouse South Dakota State before hosting former conference rival Arkansas.

Effectively, Gundy's saying bring it on. Just leave the off-the-field junk -- off the field till December.

Specifically, Gundy's not going to entertain any in-season talk of player compensation or NIL monies. 

"The good news is the next five months, we can just play football. That's what I told the players. There's no negotiations now," Gundy told reporters. "The Portal's over. All the negotiations are history. Now, we're playing football. Just coaching and playing football."

Gundy acknowledged that talking de facto salaries with players is very much a real thing in today's college football -- but it's something not open for discussion in-season.

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

"So, now we're able to direct ourselves just to football and that part is fun. Because there's been so much other stuff that's going on it's been hard to really focus on football."

While much of what players currently earn is subjective depending the funding and influence of collectives, genuine Name, Image and Likeness opportunities and other variables, Gundy doesn't think the current status quo is going to be the standard for long.

"All this is pretty intriguing right now. I think it's all gonna change again in less than two years, but it is what it is for now," Gundy said. "It's very intriguing. Everybody's waiting to see if she (U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken) signs off on this (NCAA revenue-sharing) settlement. 

"Then, we'll have parameters and then we can start attacking how you distribute $20 million amongst 105 people. So it's very interesting to even think about that, almost unfathomable. That part is intriguing and somewhat fun to think of different ways you can do it."