$7.1 Million Head Coach Issues Strong Statement on Current State of College Football

The Iowa Hawkeyes finished 9–4 (6–3 Big Ten) and capped the year with a 34–27 ReliaQuest Bowl win over Vanderbilt, closing at No. 23 in the final AP Top 25 under longtime head coach Kirk Ferentz.

After an 8–5 finish the previous season and entering 2025 outside the preseason AP Top 25, the campaign was widely viewed as a success. Iowa leaned on an elite defense that allowed just 16.1 points per game (eighth nationally) and 280.4 total yards per game (ninth fewest), reinforcing the program’s identity.

Across nearly three decades in Iowa City, Ferentz has compiled 213 wins, captured Big Ten titles in 2002 and 2004, secured multiple division crowns, and earned four Big Ten Coach of the Year honors while maintaining consistent bowl appearances.

In 2022, Iowa extended Ferentz through the 2029 season on a deal valued at roughly $7.1 million annually.

Before arriving at Iowa, Ferentz spent six seasons (1993–1998) in the NFL, serving as an offensive line coach with the Cleveland Browns and later the Baltimore Ravens, including a stint as assistant head coach.

On Friday, Ferentz drew on that NFL experience while addressing the current state of college football, criticizing the sport’s lack of clarity amid recent structural changes and contrasting it with the NFL’s standardized rules and transparent competitive framework.

"Six years of experience in the NFL, and a lot of things I don’t miss about the NFL, but one of the things I miss is the clarity in terms of expectations and what the rules are,” Ferentz told On3.

“Basically, all 32 teams operate by the same set of rules. As we’ve evolved into the revenue sharing, which I thought was a worthy and needed step, we’re sitting in a quagmire. Just garbage. It’s so cloudy, it frustrates me not knowing what’s real. In the NFL, it’s very clear, there’s a ceiling, and there’s a basement — you have to be somewhere in between. There’s no [expletive] to it, and there’s transparency, too.”

Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz. — Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz looks on during the ReliaQuest Bowl against the Vanderbilt Commodores | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

The NFL operates under a single Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), establishing a leaguewide salary cap, standardized roster and contract rules, and centralized enforcement. That framework produces defined ceilings and floors, giving teams structural predictability.

By contrast, college football, following the House v. NCAA settlement approved in 2025, now allows direct revenue sharing, expanded NIL governance, and institution-specific implementation models.

Ferentz’s argument is that this shift introduces near-term uncertainty in roster construction, competitive balance, and long-range budgeting, materially impacting program planning, recruiting strategy, and competitive equity across the sport.

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