15 years ago, maybe. Now it's arguable that they're not even the best job in their state.
that's Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!). kstate isn't a better job than it was five years ago, ou isn't a worse job. recent successes/failures are meaningless.
unless they move okc, move dallas and ou fball stops raking in money, clothing the entire state in crimson and getting on tv every week, ou will stay the 3rd best job in the big 12.
Oklahoma State has more of a cultural (and possibly monetary, don't know the figures) investment in basketball than OU, so they'll have the same media market advantage in OKC. Plus, here's the thing, nobody in Dallas really gives that much of a crap about college hoops, but those that do divide up the shares pretty equally between the four texas schools, OU, OSU, and KU. OU doesn't have an inherent advantage over any of those schools I listed in terms of tv market when it comes to basketball besides Baylor and maybe (MAYBE) Tech. Sure, OU may have tons of money, but so does UT and A&M, and OU can't flood their Texas pipeline for recruits like they do in basketball. When football recruits in Texas go to OU over A&M, Tech, Baylor, and occasionally UT, there is a little bit less of a pushback since, well, they're OU football. But if you're an elite Texas basketball player, you look at UT, A&M, and KU before you even consider OU. Recruiting in Texas isn't going to get any easier for OU now that Gillispie is at Tech. Plus, given OSU having a better atmosphere, a history about on par with OU's and Boone Pickens being their sugar daddy and bringing state of the art facilities to Stillwater, I'd argue that OSU probably has about the same influence with recruits as OU.
And you can't possibly say that K-State isn't a better job now than it was five years ago. If Frank were to leave, our potential pool of coaching applicants would be of a higher quality than when Wooly left. If we were to make five Final Fours in a row, you bet your ass that this would become a much more attractive job. Success defines a program's place in the national and regional pecking order. A five year period may not mean much to most programs, but 15 to 20 years absolutely does, and for you to deny it means that you're just being obstreperous. Remember when Maryland, Wake Forest, and Arkansas used to be good?
Here's the thing about OU: their fans no longer give a single crap about basketball, they haven't had a boatload of recent success, and their national brand is nowhere near what it once was. You can get by as a very solid program with maybe one or two of those deficiencies (see: Texas fans not giving two shits), but you can't experience all of those factors without a decline in program prestige. I mean, it's not a bad job by any means, and the potential is there for a coach to do very, very well there. But 15 years ago, the up and coming coaches in the world would've banged down the door for a job like OU, and it would've been higher on the totem pole than either MU or NCSU. That's no longer the case.