Kirk Ferentz Contract Extension
What a difference a year makes. Last fall at this time, college football pundits and many loyal, and not so loyal, Hawkeye fans were screaming for Iowa to fire Kirk Ferentz. Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta took a beating for sticking with his longtime head football coach at the time.
And then the 2015 season happened. Barta’s patience and vision were rewarded with a 12-0 regular season and trip to the Rose Bowl. And today, Coach Ferentz was rewarded with a contract extension that added six years to the end of his current deal with a reported compensation package of $4.5 million plus incentives.
So, is Coach Ferentz worth it? To answer that question, consider that the increase in compensation, according to reports, is $425,000/year, or about 10% more than he was making last year. Not a giant percentage increase for an investment in what is expected to be long-term stability and competitiveness in your highest-profile athletics program. Considering the Big Ten Conference is scheduled to nearly triple its media rights revenue, according to the Sports Business Journal, thanks to recently negotiated deals with ESPN and Fox Sports, the entire salary increase for the life of the extension should be paid for with the first year of increased Big Ten revenue distribution under the new media contracts.
According to USA Today, FBS football head coaching salaries rose 70% between 2006 and 2012. At the time USA Today published that report, Nick Saban was scheduled to make $5.5 million as Alabama’s head coach. Three years later, Saban made $7 million. In Kirk Ferentz, Gary Barta locked in cost certainty for the next decade at a price that’s very reasonable when considering the rapid escalation of salaries in the marketplace. Looking at USA Today’s figures for the top-20 football coaching salaries in 2015, the average is around $4.6-4.7 million. So replacing Coach Ferentz would not only require paying off his contract and buying out the contracts of his staff, but also replacing him with someone who would cost as much or more (based on the market) and may not be a good fit at Iowa, may not win more games and may only look at Iowa City as a stop along the way to the next opportunity.
When Coach Ferentz’s current contract before today’s extension was set to expire after 2019, what will the average for a top-20 head coach be then? $5 million? $6 million? More? Coach Ferentz, according to reports, is locked in at $4.5 million/year. Gary Barta and Iowa President Bruce Harreld have 18 years of history upon which to evaluate the merit of the school’s investment in their head football coach. That history includes a nationally-ranked program that has avoided even the suggestion of major NCAA violation rumors, that annually ranks high in academic measures and that, overall when considering thousands of student-athletes and staff during Coach Ferentz’s tenure, has represented the University with integrity on the field, on campus, in the community and nationally.
Gary Barta deserves credit for sticking with an embattled coach a year ago when the easy and popular decision would have been to cut him loose and bring in a big, sexy name to ignite the fan base. Barta and Harreld deserve credit for making a long-term, below-market investment in a stable future in the football program. As a faculty member and former NCAA staff member, I agree with many out there who believe that coaching salaries have reached ridiculous levels on college campuses. However, I also recognize that until the NCAA marketplace changes either through court decisions or unexpected and unlikely rules changes, the going rate for a football coach at any university investing resources in a top-20 program will continue rising and is likely to reach eight figures by the time Coach Ferentz retires, which I hope will not be until the end of his most recent contract extension.