Oklahoma State University's unique fundraiser was expected to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars to fund school sports, based on the idea of purchasing $10 million life insurance policies on about two dozen boosters with the university as a beneficiary.

Instead, the so-called “Gift of a Lifetime” program created on the advice of T. Boone Pickens has ended with Oklahoma State having spent $33 million with nothing to show for it.

A federal judge has ruled against OSU's bid to get back the money it spent on premiums as part of the fundraising idea launched in 2007 with 27 boosters agreeing to have life insurance policies taken out that would pay the school when they died. Judge Jorge A. Solis in Dallas ruled Friday that Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. should keep the premiums it received from Oklahoma State as the first two yearly payments for the policies.

The university still has a state lawsuit pending in Payne County.