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Mike Gundy (HC Oklahoma St. Cowboys)

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This man is now 44, and it looks like T. Boone Pickens will keep him on the Cowboy sideline for a long time.

It sounds like a healthy raise, but the key to keeping somebody locked up is the buyout clause, which isn't mentioned.

NOTE - this report estimates an annual salary of $3.1 million, the Oklahoman reported an estimate of $3.7 million.

CBS

Mike Gundy gets an 8-year extension

What happens when you lead your team to its first conference title and first win in a BCS bowl game? Well, if you're Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy, you get an eight-year contract extension.

Sources tell CBSSports.com's Brett McMurphy that Gundy and Oklahoma State have agreed to a deal that will keep him on the sidelines in Stillwater through the 2019 season. The financial details of the deal aren't disclosed, but it's believed that Gundy will receive a raise that takes his yearly compensation from $2.1 million a year to $3.1 million.

That salary would likely put him among the top 15-to-20 head coaches in the FBS, and third in the Big 12 behind Mack Brown at Texas and Bob Stoops at archrivals Oklahoma.

Gundy has been at Oklahoma State since the 2005 season, going 59-30 in that time with six straight bowl appearances. However, in the last two seasons the Cowboys have gone 23-3 and won the Big 12 this season before beating Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl. Depending on how the BCS Championship Game shakes out, the Cowboys will likely finish the season ranked second in the country.

That would be a nice accomplishment for any program. At Oklahoma State, however, that kind of success is virtually unprecedented; the Cowboys haven't won an outright conference championship in any league since taking the Missouri Valley in 1948--and that league had only three members at the time. The past two seasons represent the only two 11-win seasons in school history, and Gundy's four straight 9-win seasons doubles the school's previous best streak of (you can do the math) two. (It's worth noting that the program's previous high-water mark, the back-to-back 10-win seasons featuring Barry Sanders in 1987 and 1988, ended with the school on severa probation that helped lead to eight consectuvie losing seasons between 1989 and 1996.)

It's that kind of lack of traditional success that's made the OSU job a stepping stone in the past. Gundy predecessor Les Miles never approached the heights Gundy has in Stillwater -- his best season of his four at the Cowboy helm was a 9-4 (5-3) mark in 2003 that ended in a Cotton Bowl loss to Ole Miss -- and still converted that meager success into an LSU job that ranks among the most plum in the country.

Which is why it's no surprise at all to see Gundy receive this level of commitment from the school. With Texas still looking for an offensive identity and Oklahoma still struggling to return their defense to a championship-caliber unit, there's no reason the Cowboys can't maintain a long-term perch near the top of the conference if they're ready to make the commitment ... and the presence of megabooster T. Boone Pickens ensure that that commitment should be there.

(It's worth noting here that Gundy has already had to rebuild the program on the fly, having been forced to replace record-setting quarterback Zac Robinson and Dez Bryant before the 2010 season, and then offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen before this one. In Brandon Weeden, Justin Blackmon and Todd Monken, it's safe to say Gundy passed those tests with flying colors.)

Pickens is the other reason we can't be surprised even by the hefty nine-year price tag for Gundy's extension; T. Boone said via his Twitter account at the start of December that Gundy had earned a raise. And at Oklahoma State, when T. Boone Pickens says you deserve a raise, you're going to get a raise.

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