1st off no change is happening. Fran has a contract through 2028. The rational hope would be that Barta would quit extending Fran's contract unless he has some success beyond his low 50% win percentage in B1G. With the B1G itself being a below average P5 conference, being middle of the pack in B1G is nothing special. I get Fran has 4 straight NCAA appearances....with more than half the leagues going to NCAA each year recently, all it takes is a mediocre record to make NCAA in B!G.
The success story for Portal/NIL rags to riches is pretty obvious ---Uconn 4 transfers, Miami 3 including 2 that came with $800K NIL deal , Florida Atlantic had 3 I think. Fran has been among the most resistant/hesitant and least successful among P5 coaches to being able to land transfers/Portal players. NIL is a year late, but getting done....lets monitor Fran on his portal/NIL success,,,if he continues to lag, all the more reason NOT to renew his contract because his skill set is not longer matched to modern college b-ball.
Without a Sweet16 to his 30 year career, and at 63 years of age, Fran has near zero chance of getting another P5 job that pays the same. He's locked in for good or bad....the only way Iowa gets rid of him is if pulls an Alford and moves down to a non-P5 conference and takes a pay cut...or Fran somehow pulls a rabbit out of the hat and makes the sweet16 in next 2-3 years and he becomes more marketable. The fact that Notre Dame had zero interest in Fran kind of shows Fran's market value.
I'd like to see Iowa B-ball coach salary geared towards pay for performance on Top end NCAA success to make Fran actually interested in making some improvements, instead of being fat and content getting extensions every year and complete freedom to practice nepotism and run Iowa b-ball as personal fiefdom.
