An alert FrontBurnervian points us to the news that Oklahoma State is sad that it followed T. Boone Pickens’ investment advice. Pickens is a famously generous OSU booster. In addition to money, in 2007 he suggested a plan for OSU: 1) Buy life insurance policies on old OSU alums. 2) Wait for them to die. 3) Ca-ching! Problem is, no one died, which kind of ruined the math. OSU wound up wasting $33 million on premiums. A federal judge just ruled that the university is not owed a refund.
Here’s what I find most troubling about this development: I go panda hunting with T. Boone in odd-numbered years. He told me about this whole death bet insurance scheme, and I took out a rather large policy on Zac, figuring if T. Boone’s plan was good enough for OSU, it was good enough for this country boy.
Um, yeah. Zac’s still alive, too.
