One of the most interesting stories currently is Oklahoma State's search for a new coach. Normally this would be kind of low-key - if we recall correctly, their last two coaches were Leonard Hamilton and Eddie Sutton (before his son Sean was fired, that is). Hamilton was an up-and-comer and Sutton was a salvage project after his flameout at Kentucky and his alcoholism.Now, tycoon T. Boone Pickens is threatening to remake the landscape of the game by seriously jacking up salaries. Pickens has already given tons of money to the OSU athletic department (try $165 million). One obvious name is alum Bill Self, who says he's not interested. He might get a good KU raise out of this though, although not Pickens type cash (a $40 million dollar package is being rumored).
The drawback to the job is that it's in Stillwater. It's a small town in a rural state not all that far from Nebraska (oops - we meant Kansas. What can we say, we're American). We're not knocking rural life, mind you, or Oklahoma, but if a traditional complaint about Clemson is that it's in the sticks (not as true as it used to be), OSU is way in the sticks. Oklahoma City is a couple of hours away, and they're getting an NBA team pretty soon, but that's about it for nearby road trips. Kansas City is about five hours, Dallas about the same.
You get enough money and enough momentum, you can build a program anywhere, and the Cowboys have had success. But it's not as easy when you're sort of out there.