For some odd reason, my UNC-blogging keeps bringing me back to Oklahoma State. The hiring of the coach, the firing of the coach, the huge amounts of money given to the athletic department - it all fascinates me. Maybe it's the residual JamesOn Curry connection. But if you haven't been religiously tracking the Cowboys, you may not be aware that T. Boone Pickens, he of the ubiquitous energy policy commercials that are totally about making the U.S. strong and not an elaborate land grab, gave the OSU Athletic Department $165 million dollars. The Cowboys were to take this money and build some new athletic facilities. And then:

Those funds, along with $37 million from other donors, were invested in BP Capital Management, a hedge fund controlled by Pickens. At the time, it looked like a windfall that would keep on giving. Instead, Pickens recently acknowledged that his investments had lost $1 billion this year amid the financial crisis.

Now, building on Oklahoma State’s athletic village has been held up, and the athletic director, Mike Holder, said the project would have to wait until Pickens’s financial situation improved. Holder and a spokesman for BP Capital declined to disclose the current value of the university’s investment in Pickens’s hedge fund.

First of all, how can I give UNC a large sum of money that I still get to keep? Because I could use my name on a couple of buildings, you know.

Second, I have a note here from Sean Sutton: Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.