Iowa is a P5 school which puts it on a different level for financial resources. There are something like only 5 P5 schools that have a longer string of not making the Sweet16 than Iowa, and Fran is responsible for over half the dry spell.
The debate shouldn't be whether Fran should be fired or not, because he won't be fired. The debate is whether winning 55% of your games in B1G play and getting in an expanded NCAA tourney roughly at 50% clip is really that high a bar. Getting there is great, but not so much when your are DOA as soon as you get there because you only play half the game.
For many fans that is a great outcome---and that they have the right to that opinion. If some other fan would prefer a higher ceiling, why wouldn't those fan's opinion's be equally valid?
If Fran himself felt any pressure at all, then he might actually look in the mirror and embrace defense for instance. It is the low bar that makes Fran and Ferentz so comfortable in running their programs as fiefdoms.
