3 straight lackluster seasons is enough of a trend. No defense to speak of, can't recruit a legit B1G point guard, getting your ass kicked on senior day by Rutgers, getting punked by a horrible Nebraska team to end the season. This is not where this program should be in year 9. And then there's Fran's feud with Dolphin, his failure to reign in Tyler Cook when he does stupid s--t on the court, his maniacal displays of rage that have no track record of serving to motivate his players, and the little secret extension he worked with Barta in 2017 which doubled his buyout. A deal which would never have been made known without a reporter filing a FOIA request. I have long moved on from the (well at least this isn't Lickliter) years when Fran first got here. Iowa can do better.
I don't want to hear that it is too expensive to fire Fran. The athletic department is flush with cash from TV rights and shared BTN revenue. However, those sources of money will not last forever and there are also some little-known aspects of the tax reform bill that will eat into department revenues as well such as a 21% excise tax on university salaries over $1,000,000 and the elimination of the ability to write off season ticket purchases on taxes. What is the cost of failing to act now and get serious about the program's future? Fran's buyout is affordable now, but with potential losses in revenue down the road which could also include reduced fan support from lackluster on-court play the buyout could become more of an issue.
The Board of Regents needs to act and do its job in oversight of a state run university. The secretive extension that they had no intent of telling anyone about plus Barta's little $6 million discrimination lawsuit he brought on by his mishandling of the Greisbaum/Jane Meyer fiasco should have gotten Barta canned already. I doubt anything will happen because only one word describes the situation at Iowa now: Corruption. And corruption is a nasty little cancer that is hard to get rid of (please excuse my analogy but it fits).
I don't want to hear that it is too expensive to fire Fran. The athletic department is flush with cash from TV rights and shared BTN revenue. However, those sources of money will not last forever and there are also some little-known aspects of the tax reform bill that will eat into department revenues as well such as a 21% excise tax on university salaries over $1,000,000 and the elimination of the ability to write off season ticket purchases on taxes. What is the cost of failing to act now and get serious about the program's future? Fran's buyout is affordable now, but with potential losses in revenue down the road which could also include reduced fan support from lackluster on-court play the buyout could become more of an issue.
The Board of Regents needs to act and do its job in oversight of a state run university. The secretive extension that they had no intent of telling anyone about plus Barta's little $6 million discrimination lawsuit he brought on by his mishandling of the Greisbaum/Jane Meyer fiasco should have gotten Barta canned already. I doubt anything will happen because only one word describes the situation at Iowa now: Corruption. And corruption is a nasty little cancer that is hard to get rid of (please excuse my analogy but it fits).
