MisterGopher
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Excellent article.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6446598/2025/06/24/iowa-football-kirk-ferentz-interview/
In the era of college athletics defined by unlimited free agency, revenue sharing and an expanding playoff system, it may be stunning to some that the longest tenured person leading a football program is comfortable with the new status quo.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz will lead the Hawkeyes for a 27th season this fall and has acquired a vanilla reputation that can border on stale and resistant to change. But when it comes to paying athletes and allowing them to move around at a whim, Ferentz is more invigorated than many of his peers.
“In some crazy way, I enjoy all the crazy stuff that’s going on the last couple of years here with our game and the landscape and all that,” said Ferentz recently in an exclusive interview with The Athletic. “It’s almost like a challenge in some ways. And then the single best part is just the people you work with, and that hasn’t changed.”
The stress of paying athletes, some of whom take a nomadic journey as yearly free agents, has contributed to driving out national championship-winning coaches in football and men’s basketball. Ferentz has chosen a different route. He has long supported athlete compensation, especially with soaring media rights revenues in college football.
Iowa football, for instance, directly generated nearly $92 million in the athletic department’s 2024 fiscal year financial statement and indirectly brought in around $50 million more in unspecified revenue. Yet in the same fiscal year, only $4.16 million went toward football scholarships.
“I think we all agree, at least I certainly do, that the revenue has really grown at a pace nobody really foresaw, other than maybe (former Big Ten commissioner) Jim Delany 15 years ago,” Ferentz said. “So, it ought to be redistributed. Whatever the numbers are on that, that’s for somebody else to decide. I think this is great.
“This is easily the most interesting time that we really have faced.”
:
“It’s almost a good trade-off rather than having somebody on your team that’s not sure they want to be there,” Ferentz said. “Now you’ve got guys, they’re just excited as hell to be here. So, hey, let’s go for it.”
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6446598/2025/06/24/iowa-football-kirk-ferentz-interview/
In the era of college athletics defined by unlimited free agency, revenue sharing and an expanding playoff system, it may be stunning to some that the longest tenured person leading a football program is comfortable with the new status quo.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz will lead the Hawkeyes for a 27th season this fall and has acquired a vanilla reputation that can border on stale and resistant to change. But when it comes to paying athletes and allowing them to move around at a whim, Ferentz is more invigorated than many of his peers.
“In some crazy way, I enjoy all the crazy stuff that’s going on the last couple of years here with our game and the landscape and all that,” said Ferentz recently in an exclusive interview with The Athletic. “It’s almost like a challenge in some ways. And then the single best part is just the people you work with, and that hasn’t changed.”
The stress of paying athletes, some of whom take a nomadic journey as yearly free agents, has contributed to driving out national championship-winning coaches in football and men’s basketball. Ferentz has chosen a different route. He has long supported athlete compensation, especially with soaring media rights revenues in college football.
Iowa football, for instance, directly generated nearly $92 million in the athletic department’s 2024 fiscal year financial statement and indirectly brought in around $50 million more in unspecified revenue. Yet in the same fiscal year, only $4.16 million went toward football scholarships.
“I think we all agree, at least I certainly do, that the revenue has really grown at a pace nobody really foresaw, other than maybe (former Big Ten commissioner) Jim Delany 15 years ago,” Ferentz said. “So, it ought to be redistributed. Whatever the numbers are on that, that’s for somebody else to decide. I think this is great.
“This is easily the most interesting time that we really have faced.”
:
“It’s almost a good trade-off rather than having somebody on your team that’s not sure they want to be there,” Ferentz said. “Now you’ve got guys, they’re just excited as hell to be here. So, hey, let’s go for it.”
