Barta - What has he done?

DP5555

DP5555

Well-Known Member
I've been posting in this site since it was created. I'd like to think I'm as level headed as it gets when it comes to making rash decisions. I try not to overreact to anything.

With that said, I've had some time to think about the disappointing results of both the football and basketball teams lately and it has made me wonder... What has Barta really done that makes him so solid in his position? The common threads started here are always Fire Ferentz, and lately it's Fire Fran! When really Barta is the one who is responsible for both contract extensions. Barta made some very strange comments about being thrilled with the basketball recruiting even though it doesn't look that impressive from outside the box. Overall the athletics at Iowa are pretty bad. Clearly there's been some interesting things going in with the women's field hockey program.

No more rambling. Bottom line... What has Barta excelled at? What are some positive achievements that he's responsible for? I think if things continue to go downhill with the remainder of this basketball season then Barta himself should be on the hot seat. I've never been a fan of the guy, and I'd love to see him replaced.
 
DP5555 said:
I've been posting in this site since it was created. I'd like to think I'm as level headed as it gets when it comes to making rash decisions. I try not to overreact to anything.

With that said, I've had some time to think about the disappointing results of both the football and basketball teams lately and it has made me wonder... What has Barta really done that makes him so solid in his position? The common threads started here are always Fire Ferentz, and lately it's Fire Fran! When really Barta is the one who is responsible for both contract extensions. Barta made some very strange comments about being thrilled with the basketball recruiting even though it doesn't look that impressive from outside the box. Overall the athletics at Iowa are pretty bad. Clearly there's been some interesting things going in with the women's field hockey program.

No more rambling. Bottom line... What has Barta excelled at? What are some positive achievements that he's responsible for? I think if things continue to go downhill with the remainder of this basketball season then Barta himself should be on the hot seat. I've never been a fan of the guy, and I'd love to see him replaced.
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Fundraising.
 
I agree with fundraising, although I would hope that it's about to get more difficult. It certainly appears as if they are having some difficulties with selling bowl game tickets. I expect the season tickets to fall off next year in both football and basketball (barring a big turnaround in bball).

Hawkeye fans are faithful. I think the majority of us simply expect a reasonable amount of success. However, we should never settle for mediocrity and to me it feels like that's what we're doing right now.

We're being given mediocre and it feels like we're expected to accept it. Barta should be the one demanding more not settling for the status quo. It starts with him and his expectations.
 
hawkdrummer1 said:
True.

Fundraising leveraging past successes. If football and bball continue to slide... it will get a lot harder. Especially with the turd in Ames working overtime for any edge he can get.
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Not a defender of Barta....He is just doing what a 21st century AD(s) has to do.....raise money and balance the books.
 
trj said:
Fundraising.
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Do you know this or are you just repeating what you've heard?

I'm not saying you're wrong but this is something that the average Joe just doesn't know.

Is he better at fundraising than Bowlby? If we didn't have him and hired the best available candidate would the high dollar donors just tell the university to **** off and close their checkbooks forever? I just highly doubt that..
 
gohawkz said:
Do you know this or are you just repeating what you've heard?

I'm not saying you're wrong but this is something that the average Joe just doesn't know.

Is he better at fundraising than Bowlby? If we didn't have him and hired the best available candidate would the high dollar donors just tell the university to **** off and close their checkbooks forever? I just highly doubt that..
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I dunno, that gazillion dollar football practice facility got built under his watch. Bottom line, given what we do know, he must be good at something....why else would he still have a job?
 
Barta "Negatives": Not enough bandwidth to list

Barta "Positives": 1) He didn't fire Tom Davis 2) He didn't hire Steve Alford 3) He fired Todd Licklighter
 
There was a time when I thought people were too hard on Gary Barta. I was wrong. Something needs to happen with the big 2 sports before we become completely irrelevant in both. The basketball program was dead and buried after Lick, and Fran gets credit for giving it some life. But we are not getting enough Big 10 athletes and are going to struggle to get in the tournament anytime soon. The football program is now basically a 7-5 program. It will only get worse if things continue as they are.
 
trj said:
I dunno, that gazillion dollar football practice facility got built under his watch. Bottom line, given what we do know, he must be good at something....why else would he still have a job?
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Consider names like Andy Piro, Mark Jennings, Martin Grenzebach ....GB had some help. Kinnick needed rehab, it was going to get done no matter who was AD and the timing could not have been better. KFz was never hotter than 2002-2004.

Fundraising is a central part of his job and he's done it effectively, But there are plenty of ADs out there that would love to have had that kind of leverage... as opposed to places where it's a lot tougher (like ISU)

Winning still matters. And if his coaches don't start delivering at a higher level... fundraising and ticket sales will sag.
 
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hawkdrummer1 said:
Yeah, and it got built while I was a season ticket holder, so i deserve some credit too. Kinnick needed rehab, it was going to get done no matter who was AD. And while fundraising is a central part of his job and he's done it effectively, there are plenty of ADs out there that would love to do that at IOWA... as opposed to places where it's a lot tougher.

Unless his programs win bigger, it will get tougher. Winning still matters.
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I am with you on this I am just speculating why he still has a job.
 
I think that Barta has created a culture of mediocrity. When he starts raising NCAA tourney banners for play-in games and referring to bowl wins as championships, he has created a culture that celebrates average. On top of that, he gives pretty fat contracts that reward mediocre results. Honest question here, does he care more about winning or putting up another building?
 
Rowing team facility, football "palace", Kinnick improvements, Carver/Hawkeye facility upgrade, baseball facility upgrade. I think, but correct me if I am wrong, that the LaCrosse facility, the soccer facility and maybe the softball facility have all been upgraded. Remember that the Carver/Hawkeye upgrade greatly benefited the men's, women's basketball programs as well as wrestling and volleyball. The BT network guys indicated that Iowa's new football facility is one of the very best in the country. ALL of this without one red cent of taxpayer $. That should take care of Iowa's athletic facilities for a very long time and will definitely be GB's legacy. Oh, yeah...he also fired Iowa's wrestling coach and hired Tom Brands, who everybody seems to love. And, he pulled the trigger on Lick, who many thought was a good hire at the time.

Personnel: Although KF's contract has turned out to be a major target, and maybe rightfully so, remember this: If KF had bolted for the NFL at the time Barta solidified KF's contract, Barta would have incurred the wrath of the fan base, believe me. Catch up on the history here, since many of you were not involved when this all took place years ago. I still think Fran was a very good hire and will have good success at Iowa and be here for quite a while. I concede that many disagree with this view, but I guess we will wait and see, since he is not going anywhere soon.

I frankly think, as to KF, if next year's team does not win 8 games MINIMUM, he may well ride into the sunset. Just guessing, but I don't think it would be unreasonable to expect this outcome.

Bottom line: GB should not be fired, but is and will continue to be in a high profile job that can disappear in a heartbeat. As to Sally Mason: She is the University president and has little to do with the athletic program...hate to break the news to you, but she has bigger fish to fry than sports.
 
doclee said:
Rowing team facility, football "palace", Kinnick improvements, Carver/Hawkeye facility upgrade, baseball facility upgrade. I think, but correct me if I am wrong, that the LaCrosse facility, the soccer facility and maybe the softball facility have all been upgraded. Remember that the Carver/Hawkeye upgrade greatly benefited the men's, women's basketball programs as well as wrestling and volleyball. The BT network guys indicated that Iowa's new football facility is one of the very best in the country. ALL of this without one red cent of taxpayer $. That should take care of Iowa's athletic facilities for a very long time and will definitely be GB's legacy. Oh, yeah...he also fired Iowa's wrestling coach and hired Tom Brands, who everybody seems to love. And, he pulled the trigger on Lick, who many thought was a good hire at the time.

Personnel: Although KF's contract has turned out to be a major target, and maybe rightfully so, remember this: If KF had bolted for the NFL at the time Barta solidified KF's contract, Barta would have incurred the wrath of the fan base, believe me. Catch up on the history here, since many of you were not involved when this all took place years ago. I still think Fran was a very good hire and will have good success at Iowa and be here for quite a while. I concede that many disagree with this view, but I guess we will wait and see, since he is not going anywhere soon.

I frankly think, as to KF, if next year's team does not win 8 games MINIMUM, he may well ride into the sunset. Just guessing, but I don't think it would be unreasonable to expect this outcome.

Bottom line: GB should not be fired, but is and will continue to be in a high profile job that can disappear in a heartbeat. As to Sally Mason: She is the University president and has little to do with the athletic program...hate to break the news to you, but she has bigger fish to fry than sports.
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I don't necessarily disagree with any of this.

However, I would add that a lot of the "second tier" programs that you mentioned have been terrible. If you simply focus on the big budget programs (football and basketball) the results have been mostly mediocre. I understand at the time of Kirk's extension that he was a hot commodity. That's the way this works. It's a business decision. That's why Barta gets compensated as well as he does. He has to make those big decisions and live with the results. The results have been very mediocre since he signed that contract.

Regarding Fran, I'm not ready to bail on him yet. I like the guy. I just think he has struggled mightily to improve the program through recruiting. They literally don't have a single player who is a consistent offensive threat. I don't know about all of you, but I was disgusted to see Morgan and Lohaus for UNI make plays that Iowa's guards weren't making. Those guys grew up right in Iowa City and they were legacy recruits! I realize the guys Iowa nabbed over them were higher profile at the time, but talent-wise it certainly didn't appear that way on the court. So either Fran has to take a hit there for his inability to spot talent or he takes a hit for his inability to develop it. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth no matter how I slice it. The Hawkeye players just look frozen. They have a mental block the size of Texas. I don't know where else to place the blame for that other than coaching and recruiting.

Like I said before, Barta is compensated well for the responsibility that is his when he makes big coaching decisions. So far his lengthy contract extension for Ferentz, no matter how things looked at that time, looks pretty foolish right now. His recent comments about being thrilled with Iowa's basketball recruiting are laughable at best. We aren't Cyclone fans. We don't buy into that BS the way they do. Don't sell hope to us. Give us results or your buttcheeks better start getting warm. I've been patient long enough. I think the majority of us have. If Barta is truly satisfied with the current state of Iowa athletics then he has lost his mind, and he deserves to be shown the door in my opinion.
 
I sure hope Barta isn't around to make the next hire for either football or hoops... He's been a rock star at raising money... But like what I've seen mentioned on here that's as much luck on his part as anything. The timing of the BTN money coming in and Barta taking advantage of a hungry fan base mostly loyal and some with deep pockets is why he's succeeded in that way. Clearly the big two programs have made money but not won a whole lot lately... Our definition of success as fans is different then Bartas and his boss...
 
Interestingly enough... Barta's profile sounds similar to KFz.

Plays by the rules, pays the bills, etc. Predictable, stable, executes the basics of his job and stays out of trouble. But the burning desire to win...seems to be a secondary priority.

in a word: Safe.
 
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