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Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz is the longest-tenured FBS coach in the nation, and he has concerns about the evolving landscape of college football.
Ferentz expressed the need for some oversight while speaking to reporters Tuesday at Big Ten media days.
“We need some intervention, and then my bigger concern is: Who’s going to do it, right? Where’s it going to come from? Where’s that leadership going to come from, because we’re all busy?” Ferentz said.
Ferentz is entering his 24th season as head coach of the Hawkeyes. Amid an offseason defined by conference realignment and NIL scrutiny, Ferentz has not liked what he’s been seeing.
“There’s just a lot of vagueness, a lot of uncertainty. We really don’t have a firm structure. We don’t have a basic set of operating rules,” he said. “I don’t think anybody right now can really explain the NIL in detail, what you can and what you can’t do. I know you can’t entice recruits, but it sure seems like maybe that’s going on a little bit. There’s just a lack of overall clarity.”
Ferentz, who turns 67 on Aug. 1, signed a contract extension through 2029 this offseason that will pay him $7 million annually. Further illustrating his frustration with the state of college football, he pointed to the verbal back-and-forth between Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher in May.
“You’ve got two head coaches, prominent head coaches and both good coaches, who are bickering in the public forum, and you know, that’s not a good look for our sport,” Ferentz said. “It’s not a good look for the conference, and that makes you wonder, ‘So, what are we doing here? How come we can’t straighten all this out?'”
Ferentz also lamented the effect NIL is having on recruiting and transfers.
“So you go into the portal, you come back in my office and say, ‘I got a deal for, let’s say, $250,000,'” Ferentz said. “How do I know that’s right? We have no way of knowing. Is that what his adviser is telling him? There’s a lot of that going on already, and I don’t know where it ends.”
