Iowa Football Coaches Receive Raises After School Cuts Swimming Programs

Assistant football coaches at the University of Iowa will receive pay raises for 2020-2021, even after factoring in a 10% reduction in salaries.

The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa will pay out $575,000 more in base salaries to its football coaches this school year. But about $527,000 of that will be off-set by the school’s reduction in salaries for highly-paid coaches. Iowa previously announced that all coaches making more than $200,000 a year (which includes all 11 football coaches) would have their salaries reduced by 10% this year as the school stared down a growing financial deficit amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Register pulls data from an open records request, reporting that 10 on-field assistant coaches in the Hawkeye football program received raises between $40,000 and $90,000 for the 2020-2021 season. Even with the 10% reduction, most Iowa football coaches will take home slightly more this year than they did last year.

That comes after the school cut women’s and men’s swimming & diving along with two other programs (men’s gymnastics and men’s tennis) in an effort to reduce its athletics budget.

Two assistant football coaches at Iowa now make more than $800,000 a year. Defensive coordinator Phil Parker got a raise from $800,000 last year to $890,000 this year, while offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz got a raise from $790,000 to $860,000. Head coach Kirk Ferentz is the state’s highest-paid public employee, making $4.8 million in 2019.

The Register‘s report comes after the Big Ten decided to cancel its fall football season, with a chance to play football in the spring of 2021.

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Raul
3 years ago

Dude they only care about the students don’t forget. It’s all about the wellbeing of the students 🤣

Mike A Logsdon
3 years ago

Quit attending and watching football. Only answer.

Robert Miecznikowski
3 years ago

The loss of Alumni Donations to Iowa, From former Iowa swimmers and divers will be significantly more than the operating costs of the swimming teams this year alone. Former swimmers and divers are Massive donors. That’s the benefit of so called “Non Profit Sports”. The yearly alumni donations. I am amazed at the short sightedness of the athletic department and university President. Not a very good business model. Best of Luck !

James Smith
3 years ago

Kirk and Brian Ferentz need to resign. Their most recent actions have been a complete embarrassment for the University and the State of Iowa. I have been an avid Hawkeye and Ferentz supporter for many years but no more. Their recent actions have led me to the conclusion that beyond their biased actions towards African Americans they clearly are full of themselves. Three strikes and you are out…S1-Mary Ferentz asking/telling her neighbor (road dispute), “do you know who you are talking to”…S2-Brian Ferentz racist remarks against AAs in Program+other indiscretions….S3-Kirk Ferentz running a racially biased Program for many years! Time for new leadership!

Done Before
3 years ago

How are people so ignorant as to reality.

Bobby
3 years ago

Yet my son has to pay full cost for ZOOM university?? Freaking bs

Time to file!

spectatorn
3 years ago

wow, in all of the state of Iowa!
“Head coach Kirk Ferentz is the state’s highest-paid public employee, making $4.8 million in 2019.”

Admin
Reply to  spectatorn
3 years ago

This is true in many states. It turns out that being a civil servant has a certain cap on pay, because taxpayers don’t like their taxes to go to pay people over a million dollars per year. So, the highest paid public employees in most states are people in sort of quasi-public positions like football coaches or medical school administrators, where they work for something that produces a product or a service that people pay money for. As compared to someone who runs a department where the primary revenue is direct tax payer funding.

https://fanbuzz.com/national/highest-paid-state-employees/

swimfan210_
3 years ago

I hope the Iowa athletic department sees this comment section

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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