And, rumor is, he’s a lot easier to get along with than Alabama’s Nick Saban, who actually makes more than he does.

Winning ain’t free.

But that doesn’t mean you have to like it.

Imagine how underpaid Barry Switzer must have been, coaching in an age when coaches must never have pondered their actual worth, before everybody had to win right now, to bring the money in right now, to participate in a nuclear facilities race right now.

Before universities realized just how much they could tap their fans and donors, before they ever thought of exploiting their brand for all it’s worth.

Before, it seems, they took leather helmets off in favor of something sturdier … when it’s really just a 10- to 15-year phenomenon; driven in large part by, you better believe it, the University of Oklahoma.

But he earned it.

They all earned it.

It is what it is.

Not what it was.

Doesn’t make it right.

Clay Horning

366-3526

cfhorning@normantranscript.com