If you haven’t seen Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy’s rant against a newspaper columnist, make it a point to check it out. It’s Ozzie Guillen on steroids. It’s Donald Trump going after Rosie, but ramped up a bit. It’s an old-fashioned butt-kicking.

The butt in question happened to belong to Jennie Carlson, a columnist for the Daily Oklahoman. It’s anybody’s guess if Gundy would have been so insulting to a columnist who was male, 6-foot-4, and 240 pounds. It was an act of intimidation, pure and simple, and never mind Gundy’s claim that he was only taking up for a player who had been unfairly maligned.

Pointing in Carlson’s direction and moving toward her in a threatening manner, Gundy made an ass of himself. He’s the type who gives coaches a bad name. In her column, Carlson had questioned quarterback Bobby Reid’s toughness and dedication to winning. She offered several examples to support her thesis.

“That article had to have been written by a person that doesn’t have a child,” Gundy screamed. “And has never had a child that had his heart broken and come home upset and had to deal with a child when he is upset. … He’s not a professional athlete and he doesn’t deserve to be kicked when he’s down.”

Oh, puh-leeze. Jerks like Gundy want to have it both ways. On the one hand, they support the professionalization of college athletics because they’re a big part of it. The line between big-time college sports and pro sports has become so thin as to be invisible.

Yet when things aren’t going well, when the fans are booing and the media is criticizing, the coaches run for cover and hide behind the hoary old idealism of amateur athletics. Hate to tell you, coach, but big-time college football hasn’t had much to do with amateurism since Paul “Bear” Bryant was just a cub.

Gundy, who claims he doesn’t read Carlson’s newspaper “because it’s garbage” and went on to say “the editor who let it come out is garbage,” left without taking questions, and was applauded by what must have been cronies as he stormed out of the room. Naturally, the Oklahoman stands by its columnist and her column.

But maybe there’s something to be salvaged from Gundy’s meltdown. Maybe the media and big-time college athletics can work out a deal: The media will agree to treat Division I football as an amateur sport when universities begin doing the same.

How do the universities do that?

1. No head football coach should make more money than the highest-paid academic dean.

2. Universities will agree to stop recruiting and accepting athletes who have no desire to be in college, no desire to get an education, and no desire to stay more than a year or two.

3. The freshman-ineligible rule will be reinstated.

4. Ticket prices will be slashed and donor programs disbanded.

5. All football games will be played on Saturday and the season will be cut back to 10 games.

6. No team shall be allowed to play on national TV more than twice a season.

7. Players will be covered by workman’s compensation insurance and given a modest stipend for living expenses.

8. A program will be have to forfeit one scholarship for every player who doesn’t stay a minimum of four years.

9. A playoff system like the ones that exist in the lower NCAA divisions will replace the bowl system.

Once universities agree to restore a semblance of amateurism to their programs and integrity to the term “student-athlete,” then the media will cut the players more slack, befitting their status as amateurs instead of pros or semi-pros.

But as long as universities continue charging small fortunes for tickets, continue paying coaches obscene salaries, and continuing to build bigger football facilities — well, the players are fair game for criticism. After all, they’re skilled workers who don’t get compensated fairly for their labor.

That’s another issue. If universities aren’t willing to return to the days of amateur purity — and they won’t be — the college players should find a lawyer willing to start a union and get them collective bargaining rights in order to keep universities from ripping them off.

So maybe Gundy should think about supporting stuff like that — if he really cares for his players — instead of making a cheap emotional plea to parents.

“If you have a child someday,” he said, “you’ll understand how it feels but you obviously don’t have a child. I do. If your child goes down the street and somebody makes fun of him because he drops a pass in pickup game or says he’s fat and he comes home crying to his mom, you’ll understand.”

Which, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with why a big-time college quarterback apparently has been underachieving.

It would be a waste of time for Oklahoma State or the Big 12 Conference to force Gundy to apologize because it would be insincere. However, he should be forced to take some courses in etiquette (to learn good manners), communications (to learn about journalism and the First Amendment), and anger management (to keep him from embarrassing himself and the university again).

Oh, yeah. The column was more analytical than critical. Perhaps the writer went too far in suggesting that Reid was a “mama’s boy.” But if that’s the worst criticism Reid ever receives, well, I hardly think his sense of humiliation will be any worse than the humiliation columnist Carlson had to feel during her public tongue-lashing.