Believing it was his dream job had some Iowa fans, and apparently some in the media, believing that Darian DeVries would be hired as the next Iowa men’s basketball coach.
But when it didn’t happen, there had to be someone to blame, and that someone appears to be Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz.
Her critics are blaming her for not closing the deal with an Iowa native that supposedly didn’t want anything more than to coach the Hawkeyes, and for not having a plan for moving forward without Fran McCaffery, who was fired as the Iowa head coach last Friday after 15 seasons.
The narrative that Iowa was supposedly DeVries’s dream job now looks kind of silly now, and was mostly just wishful thinking and mistakenly assuming that his ties to the state of Iowa would ultimately give Iowa the edge.
There might have been a time when Darian DeVries wanted to be the Iowa head coach.
He grew up in Aplington and is the older brother of former Iowa All-America defensive lineman Jared DeVries.
But until that happens, it’s survival of the fittest, and right now, Iowa isn’t very fit from an NIL standpoint compared to almost all the other Big Ten men’s basketball programs.
Indiana center Oumar Ballo reportedly received more than $1 million in NIL compensation for just the 2024-25 season.
DeVries has a six-year deal with Indiana that will pay him nearly $5 million annually.
Indiana is also reportedly building towards having more than $7 million in NIL and other revenue-sharing resources according to Matt Norlander from CBS Sports.
The financial landscape will likely soon change as a result of the House vs. NCAA settlement that is expected to be approved next month and begin July 1.
Big Ten members are expected to have approximately $20.5 million to use for direct pay to athletes for the 2025-26 school year, with the money being used however they want.
Football will obviously receive the largest portion, as much as $15 million, and deservedly so because football drives everything from a financial standpoint.
But that doesn’t leave a lot of money for the other sports, and right now the Iowa women’s basketball team, which still is feeling the buzz from the historic run with All-America point guard Caitlin Clark, is dominating the men’s program from an attendance standpoint.
The Iowa women sold out all their home games in each of the past two seasons, while the Iowa men’s basketball team barely averaged 5,000 fans for its 18 home games this past season.
Goetz has to figure a way to reward the women’s basketball team without having it come largely at the expense of the men’s basketball team’s funding.
But is that even possible?
She also has to figure wrestling into the financial mix because wrestling obviously matters at Iowa more than at most schools, while Iowa also faces a huge disadvantage in outside collectives.
Whomever is hired as Iowa’s next men’s basketball coach will be faced with all these financial shortcomings, and it’s safe to assume that Darian DeVries wanted no part of it.
And who could blame him?
Those blaming Beth Goetz for not closing the deal with Darian DeVries are turning a blind eye on the real culprit in this case, which is Iowa’s lack of NIL resources because it’s hard to compete in this new world without deep NIL pockets.
This isn’t to say that Goetz deserves no blame because the buck now stops with her.
She acted swiftly in firing Fran McCaffery, but now there is concern that she doesn’t have a plan moving forward since Darian DeVries didn’t take the job, assuming it was offered to him.
The upcoming settlement should help, but it won’t be enough to keep Iowa from ranking near the bottom of the Big Ten in men’s basketball player compensation.
Drake head coach Ben McCollum has now replaced Darian DeVries as the hot coaching prospect in Iowa’s search.
McCollum, who was born in Iowa City and grew up in Storm Lake, has been terrific in his first season with the Bulldogs, who are 30-3 heading into Thursday’s game against Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The 43-year-old McCollum probably would come a little cheaper than Darian DeVries would have. But you also have to wonder if McCollum would be set up to fail due to the lack of resources.
The next head coach will almost certainly have to rebuild the Iowa roster, with five Iowa players currently in the transfer portal, and that’ll take money that might not be available for such a daunting task.
The lack of resources will be a concern no matter who ultimately gets hired to replace Fran McCaffery, who lost multiple recruits due simply to not having enough NIL resources to compete with the big boys.
Those saying that it isn’t fair to blame the Iowa fans for the lack of NIL resources, and that the blame should be directed towards the rich donors don’t seem to understand that the rich donors are part of the fan base, and that they can’t be expected to pay for everything.
With some fans, there seems to be a belief that a person, or persons, with deep pockets will eventually fix Iowa’s lack of NIL funding for men’s basketball.
Darian DeVries, on the other hand, apparently didn’t share that belief.
What was supposedly his dream job ultimately turned into a job that wasn’t worth the risk of taking from a financial standpoint.
But Darian DeVries never has actually been a Hawkeye, and then when Indiana started to show interest in him, and when he and his agent probably compared the two jobs, it was no contest.
Dream over.
Iowa, meaning Goetz, didn’t have a chance when Indiana started flexing its financial muscles.
Iowa’s reported $1.5 million annual NIL payroll for men’s basketball ranks at or near the bottom of the Big Ten, and right now, it’s just a deal breaker.
And while it’s unfortunate that NIL has been turned into pay for play, which wasn’t the original intent, it is what it is and teams have to adjust.
This belief that a knight in shining armor will come in and fix everything that is wrong with NIL by providing more structure and guidelines might make you feel better about the future.
But when it didn’t happen, there had to be someone to blame, and that someone appears to be Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz.
Her critics are blaming her for not closing the deal with an Iowa native that supposedly didn’t want anything more than to coach the Hawkeyes, and for not having a plan for moving forward without Fran McCaffery, who was fired as the Iowa head coach last Friday after 15 seasons.
The narrative that Iowa was supposedly DeVries’s dream job now looks kind of silly now, and was mostly just wishful thinking and mistakenly assuming that his ties to the state of Iowa would ultimately give Iowa the edge.
There might have been a time when Darian DeVries wanted to be the Iowa head coach.
He grew up in Aplington and is the older brother of former Iowa All-America defensive lineman Jared DeVries.
But until that happens, it’s survival of the fittest, and right now, Iowa isn’t very fit from an NIL standpoint compared to almost all the other Big Ten men’s basketball programs.
Indiana center Oumar Ballo reportedly received more than $1 million in NIL compensation for just the 2024-25 season.
DeVries has a six-year deal with Indiana that will pay him nearly $5 million annually.
Indiana is also reportedly building towards having more than $7 million in NIL and other revenue-sharing resources according to Matt Norlander from CBS Sports.
The financial landscape will likely soon change as a result of the House vs. NCAA settlement that is expected to be approved next month and begin July 1.
Big Ten members are expected to have approximately $20.5 million to use for direct pay to athletes for the 2025-26 school year, with the money being used however they want.
Football will obviously receive the largest portion, as much as $15 million, and deservedly so because football drives everything from a financial standpoint.
But that doesn’t leave a lot of money for the other sports, and right now the Iowa women’s basketball team, which still is feeling the buzz from the historic run with All-America point guard Caitlin Clark, is dominating the men’s program from an attendance standpoint.
The Iowa women sold out all their home games in each of the past two seasons, while the Iowa men’s basketball team barely averaged 5,000 fans for its 18 home games this past season.
Goetz has to figure a way to reward the women’s basketball team without having it come largely at the expense of the men’s basketball team’s funding.
But is that even possible?
She also has to figure wrestling into the financial mix because wrestling obviously matters at Iowa more than at most schools, while Iowa also faces a huge disadvantage in outside collectives.
Whomever is hired as Iowa’s next men’s basketball coach will be faced with all these financial shortcomings, and it’s safe to assume that Darian DeVries wanted no part of it.
And who could blame him?
Those blaming Beth Goetz for not closing the deal with Darian DeVries are turning a blind eye on the real culprit in this case, which is Iowa’s lack of NIL resources because it’s hard to compete in this new world without deep NIL pockets.
This isn’t to say that Goetz deserves no blame because the buck now stops with her.
She acted swiftly in firing Fran McCaffery, but now there is concern that she doesn’t have a plan moving forward since Darian DeVries didn’t take the job, assuming it was offered to him.
The upcoming settlement should help, but it won’t be enough to keep Iowa from ranking near the bottom of the Big Ten in men’s basketball player compensation.
Drake head coach Ben McCollum has now replaced Darian DeVries as the hot coaching prospect in Iowa’s search.
McCollum, who was born in Iowa City and grew up in Storm Lake, has been terrific in his first season with the Bulldogs, who are 30-3 heading into Thursday’s game against Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The 43-year-old McCollum probably would come a little cheaper than Darian DeVries would have. But you also have to wonder if McCollum would be set up to fail due to the lack of resources.
The next head coach will almost certainly have to rebuild the Iowa roster, with five Iowa players currently in the transfer portal, and that’ll take money that might not be available for such a daunting task.
The lack of resources will be a concern no matter who ultimately gets hired to replace Fran McCaffery, who lost multiple recruits due simply to not having enough NIL resources to compete with the big boys.
Those saying that it isn’t fair to blame the Iowa fans for the lack of NIL resources, and that the blame should be directed towards the rich donors don’t seem to understand that the rich donors are part of the fan base, and that they can’t be expected to pay for everything.
With some fans, there seems to be a belief that a person, or persons, with deep pockets will eventually fix Iowa’s lack of NIL funding for men’s basketball.
Darian DeVries, on the other hand, apparently didn’t share that belief.
What was supposedly his dream job ultimately turned into a job that wasn’t worth the risk of taking from a financial standpoint.
But Darian DeVries never has actually been a Hawkeye, and then when Indiana started to show interest in him, and when he and his agent probably compared the two jobs, it was no contest.
Dream over.
Iowa, meaning Goetz, didn’t have a chance when Indiana started flexing its financial muscles.
Iowa’s reported $1.5 million annual NIL payroll for men’s basketball ranks at or near the bottom of the Big Ten, and right now, it’s just a deal breaker.
And while it’s unfortunate that NIL has been turned into pay for play, which wasn’t the original intent, it is what it is and teams have to adjust.
This belief that a knight in shining armor will come in and fix everything that is wrong with NIL by providing more structure and guidelines might make you feel better about the future.
