Oregon head coach Dan Lanning looks on as the Oregon Ducks host the Montana State Bobcats on Aug. 30, 2025, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon.

Ahead of their Week 2 matchup this college football season, the head coaches for the Oregon Ducks and Oklahoma State Cowboys are having a small feud.

Oregon, ranked No. 5 overall in the latest Coaches Poll, is coming off an undefeated regular-season last year, winning the Big Ten Championship during its first year in the conference. While the Ducks lost to the eventual national championships from Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, they reloaded with a talented roster for 2025.

But maintaining a college football roster in the modern NIL era is not cheap, which is something that Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy pointed out.

After recent comments from Gundy, however, college football fans heard a pointed response from Lanning.

Oregon hosts Oklahoma State on Saturday, September 6, at 3:30 p.m. ET.

What did Mike Gundy say about Oregon?

On his weekly radio show, Gundy called out the University of Oregon football budget (via USA TODAY):

"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."

This year is the most expensive to assemble a roster in college football history, per Front Office Sports.

Top programs are rumored at around a $40 million budget per team for their rosters, via The Athletic.

Gundy continued:

"Oregon is paying a lot, a lot of money for their team," he said. "From a non-conference standpoint, there's coaches saying they should play teams that are spending the same amount of money."

According to data from USA TODAY, the athletic department Oklahoma State has reportedly more than $100 million in expenses. Oregon sits around $140 million.

That puts both programs within the top-50 among the 232 schools in this survey with Oklahoma State at No. 45 overall and Oregon at No. 23 overall.

What did Dan Lanning say about Oklahoma State?

Lanning noted that he has a lot of respect for Gundy and all of his accomplishments with the program, where he has coached since 2005.

Here was how Lanning responded to Gundy during a recent press conference (via Ducks Wire):

"You know, ultimately, how blessed are we to be in 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 right and ultimately, like he's a great coach, they've done an unbelievable job, but I want to be a team that's competing at the highest level, and we're really fortunate to be in that situation. So I can't speak on their situation. I have no idea, you know, what's what they got in their pockets over there. 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."

It is notable that Lanning added that Oregon spends to "win" while others save their money so they can have an "excuse" why they do not.

This upcoming showdown between the two programs should create for some excitement between both the players and these two coaching personalities.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: The emerging Mike Gundy-Dan Lanning coaching feud, explained

Reporting by Bryan Kalbrosky, For The Win / For The Win

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect