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No University of Iowa football coaches took pay cuts amid pandemic, including Ferentz Coaches McCaffery, Bluder, Brands took pandemic pay cuts; not F

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None of the University of Iowa’s contracted football coaches — including head coach Kirk Ferentz — participated in the voluntary salary reductions that UI Athletics announced last summer in light of massive pandemic losses that officials cited weeks later in justifying their decision to cut four Hawkeye sports.


The football coaches, like all other contracted UI Athletics Department staff, were asked “to consider either participating in the voluntary, temporary salary reduction option or making a donation back to the department sometime during the FY2020-2021 fiscal year,” Senior Associate Athletics Director Matt Henderson told The Gazette.


Most contracted UI Athletics staffers took the pay cut — including Fran McCaffery, head coach of the men’s basketball team; Lisa Bluder, head coach of the women’s basketball squad; Tom and Terry Brands, head and associate head wrestling coaches; and head coaches of the Hawkeye volleyball, rowing, field hockey, women’s gymnastics, women’s tennis, softball, soccer, baseball, golf and track and field programs, according to public records requested and reviewed by The Gazette.


Even those coaches atop the Olympic sports the UI plans to drop after this year — including men’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis and men’s gymnastics — volunteered a pay cut. Administrators, however, waived those offers after announcing plans to eliminate the programs — and thus the jobs — to help mitigate a projected $75 million deficit in the 2021 budget year.


With over a month to go before the department’s fiscal 2021 budget ends June 30, details of how it is shaking out haven’t been made public. But officials have said losses won’t be as steep as originally thought, given that football, basketball, and wrestling seasons later materialized.


Still, given a projected operating deficit in the tens of millions, the typically self-supported UI Athletics Department pursued about $15 million in budget cuts — slashing salaries, ending some sports without warning coaches or athletes, and tapping the larger campus for a $50 million loan.


“In this instance, there is no alternative to an internal loan,” UI spokeswoman Anne Bassett said about the athletics contribution from the UI main campus — which, as a publicly-funded institution, is facing a budget crunch of its own with declining enrollment and state appropriation cuts. “State law prohibits all state agencies, including the UI, from externally financing an operating deficit.”


No Ferentz cut

Instead of taking pay cuts to help shrink the deficit — driven by the $23.9 million in budgeted football expenses, despite meager football revenue — 10 football coaches agreed “as part of the budget reductions” to forgo bonuses they earned for qualifying for a bowl game. The Hawkeyes never played that bowl game after its opponent, the University of Missouri, reported too many COVID-19 cases.


By passing up those bonuses, the football coaches saved the department $431,333. Athletics employees who took temporary pay cuts saved the department a collective $1.6 million — including non-contracted staff and merit employees, who had no choice.




When Athletic Director Gary Barta announced the budget cutting measures last summer, he named Bluder, McCaffery, Brands and Ferentz as having “voluntarily agreed to a one-year, 15-percent base salary reduction or contribution back to the athletics department.”


Ferentz didn’t take a pay cut, records show. On top of the millions more he amassed in bonus pay and additional compensation, his base salary increased $100,000 — as contracted — from $2.6 million in the 2020 budget year to $2.7 million.


He also isn’t forgoing his bowl game bonus — like the other coaches — and instead will get his $100,000 payout by June 30, according to Senior Associate Athletics Director Henderson.


When asked if Ferentz donated to the UI Center for Advancement to help with the deficit, Henderson said:


“Mary and Kirk Ferentz contributed to the department’s savings goal through their previous philanthropic commitment of $400,000 to support football letterwinner initiatives. The commitment was established in June, 2019, and pledge payments of $100,000 have been received in December 2019 and 2020.”


“In addition,” he said, “Mary and Kirk have provided nearly $1 million in private support to the Athletics Department, including a $500,000 contribution to the Kinnick Edge campaign,” referring to a fundraising drive that began in early 2017.


When asked if any other football staffers who passed on the pay cuts made a donation instead, Henderson named only assistant coach Ken O’Keefe, who “contributed to the department’s savings goal through a philanthropic contribution to support the Hawkeye Fund in the amount of $20,000 in December 2020.”


Henderson also noted all employees still have the chance to participate in the budget reductions “between now and the end of the fiscal year” less than seven weeks from now.


In a statement, Barta said department staff have supported Hawkeye athletics “through unprecedented financially difficult times” in a “myriad of ways related to our departmental goal of reducing expenses across the board and particularly in the area of compensation.”


“I’m grateful for our staff’s commitment to participate,” he said. “I am truly thankful for our staff and student-athletes, who in the midst of a pandemic, continue to achieve historic individual and team success while maintaining high academic standards.”


Football salaries swell

Although some football coaches gave up their contractually-owed bowl game bonuses to help cut costs, all who did still saw their salaries swell from the 2020 to 2021 budget years — some significantly so.


  • Head strength coach Raimond Braithwaite, who took on new responsibilities after strength coach Chris Doyle’s departure, watched his $205,000 salary more than double to $450,000.

  • Assistant coach and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz saw his $775,000 salary jump $85,000 to $860,000.

  • Assistant strength coach Cody Myers’ $56,295 salary nearly tripled to $150,000.

  • Defensive coordinator Phillip Parker took his $90,000 raise, bringing his pay to $890,000;

  • And O’Keefe saw his $625,000 salary grow to $685,000.



Few other contracted athletics employees saw pay raises from fiscal 2020 to 2021, meaning those football-related bumps served as primary drivers of the department’s half-million-dollar increase in contracted salary expenditures this year over last.


Even in fiscal 2020 — which ended last June, about four months after the pandemic began — Hawkeye football expenses came in $714,285 over budget at $30.4 million and $8.9 million over the football program’s $21.6 million income, which was under expectations.


UI Athletics last summer also paid former strength coach Doyle $1.1 million as part of a separation agreement.


Other coach cuts

In identifying department higher-ups who agreed last summer to contribute to the budget-cutting cause, Barta — who last June was making a base wage of $600,000 — committed to reducing his total compensation by over 30 percent.


A contract amendment shows Barta sliced 15 percent from his raised $650,000 base wage for fiscal 2021, knocking it down to $552,500. He also shed half his $300,000 deferred compensation for the 2020 budget year, plus another $150,000 in deferred comp this year — amounting to another $300,000 reduction.


Barta forfeited the $145,000 in supplemental pay he earned for the 2020 budget year, which at most could have totaled $150,000 for things like high graduation rates, financial stewardship, revenue growth and meeting goals he and UI President Bruce Harreld set together.


His contract amendment notes that come July 1, his annual base pay and deferred compensation arrangement will bounce back to what it would have been: $650,000 plus $400,000 annually through June 30, 2024, amounting to $1.05 million a year — plus supplemental pay, which he did not forgo in the current budget year.


Officials have not said how much Barta has earned in supplemental compensation this year.


Like Barta, all the coaches who took temporary pay cuts will see their contracted salary amounts return July 1, according to amended agreements.



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Yet some football coaches gave up some of the bonuses totaling $400k where the total saved was $1.6M. If the university really wanted the money they would have made it mandatory not voluntary.
 
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Did any of you take a voluntary pay cut? I sure the fuvk wouldn't either if I had a contract.

10% pay cut for me for a year and no bonuses. It's not a good look for leadership to continue to pay themselves while laying people off. It's also just the right thing to do for the greater good of your company and the people that work there.

For the FB staff to do this I'd argue they're either at a point where they're saying "f this place and the people that work here, I'm going to take what I can" or they tend towards being pretty selfish and only thinking of themselves. That said, I think KF is not in the same boat considering he gives it back in different ways. He probably likes targeting how the money goes back rather than giving it to an administration he thinks may squander it and I can appreciate that.
 
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Yet some football coaches gave up some of the bonuses totaling $400k where the total saved was $1.6M. If the university really wanted the money they would have made it mandatory not voluntary.

If their salary is determined by a mutually agreed on contract, I’m not sure they can require them to take pay cuts unless they have a clause in there that would allow that.
 
I'm not sure I'm mad at the football department but my 401K was slashed to 1/3 of its total amount and I lost about a quarter of my salary during covid. I look at it as a minor sacrifice during a pandemic. I'm paid well and can afford it. I know my money was used to pay people that would be furloughed. It kept my nurses and scrub techs employed. I even volunteered to cover their rent for several months if they did get furloughed. These people make it possible for the organization to survive.
 
I'm not sure I'm mad at the football department but my 401K was slashed to 1/3 of its total amount and I lost about a quarter of my salary during covid. I look at it as a minor sacrifice during a pandemic. I'm paid well and can afford it. I know my money was used to pay people that would be furloughed. It kept my nurses and scrub techs employed. I even volunteered to cover their rent for several months if they did get furloughed. These people make it possible for the organization to survive.

Good on ya. When I think "Iowa Nice" this is the kind of thing I think of.
 
I'm not sure I'm mad at the football department but my 401K was slashed to 1/3 of its total amount and I lost about a quarter of my salary during covid. I look at it as a minor sacrifice during a pandemic. I'm paid well and can afford it. I know my money was used to pay people that would be furloughed. It kept my nurses and scrub techs employed. I even volunteered to cover their rent for several months if they did get furloughed. These people make it possible for the organization to survive.
Wait, what?
 
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Yikes, this is not a feel good story....

Maybe if I was a video guy making 50k I’d decline....but if your the head hawk making millions....at a minimum that smells greedy. And I like Kirk, but not a good look...

Why?
Why should kirk give back money in his contract? Even if he gave back a million it wasn't gonna save one of those sports cut. The athletic department saw a $76 million decline in revenue. $1 million wasn't gonna do jack crap
 
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My paycut was not voluntary. And my company isn't millions in the hole.

Obvious different if your company lost you, you can be replaced.
If Kirk goes on not sure any other coach is taking Iowa to five top 10 finishes.
 
Not when revenues that used to fund that are cut substantially. Everyone should feel the pain to help the university or business.
You haven't shown why someone should break their contract to voluntarily give money back.
 
There are plenty on here who will still gargle Kirk Ferentz's balls including anything tangential to the football team. There's a reason why American academics are a joke and it starts with the unrestrained growth of college athletics. What a joke.
 
If their salary is determined by a mutually agreed on contract, I’m not sure they can require them to take pay cuts unless they have a clause in there that would allow that.
I know several people that were under contract that had addendums for reduced pay added to their contracts. It was a choice of agreeing to the addendum or losing their job. Of course these people did not have the sweet buyout protections that big time football coach contracts have.
 
There are plenty on here who will still gargle Kirk Ferentz's balls including anything tangential to the football team. There's a reason why American academics are a joke and it starts with the unrestrained growth of college athletics. What a joke.
Who pays for academics?
 
There are plenty on here who will still gargle Kirk Ferentz's balls including anything tangential to the football team. There's a reason why American academics are a joke and it starts with the unrestrained growth of college athletics. What a joke.
You probably think he’s paid with taxpayer money, too, every year.
 
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