Dropping 7 out of the last 8 and bringing a bunch of negativity to the end of the season deserves an extension? How so?
Jonrn and Sparky are a little uninformed. But don't worry, I will try to help.
First off, try not to confuse your dislike of Barta and what you think he has done regarding KF with this situation. The two are completely different.
KF has a contract that prevents a buyout due to its longevity at the time the extension happened as well as it's salary then and now. With Fran, though, he was given an extension that means he will be under contract for five seasons after this one.
It is standard operating procedure to have a coach that is performing at expectations under contract for at minimum four seasons if not five at any point in time so they can go out on the recruiting trail and not have others recruiting negatively against them, saying there is uncertainty about how long they will be at their school. If someone is recruited by a coach with less than five years on their contract, there is no security that the coach will be there the entire time that player is in school. The length we are talking about here gives that security, while everyone realizes there are no guarantees. This is just the cost of doing business.
Additionally, we are in the Big Ten, not the Colonial Conference or some other small-time conference. A contract for $1.8 annually is on the low end of this conference. The low end of the scale is not really where someone should be in the B10 if they are doing even an average job. At bare minimum Fran is doing that much for the program. I don't think that can be debated.
Based upon where this program was when Fran took it over in terms of its record over the previous seasons, its talent level and the apathy towards the program and the style of play, he has done an above average job. How high above average he has performed may be open for debate, but based upon my points above, I don't see how one can even argue that he hasn't been above average in terms of the job he has done. I am referring to the job he has done as a whole and not any individual season. If you don't think he has been above average based upon where he has brought the program from, then you probably are just too clueless to help.
What he has now is what should probably be the bare minimum of a men's basketball coach at Iowa. If we aspire to be an upper level program we cannot really afford to be the cheapest team in the conference in terms of what our coach is paid. Our coach should probably get paid a bare minimum of the low end of the middle of the pack for the conference, really. Now, that doesn't mean if a coach gets a contract like that starting out and underperforms that he is earning his money, but that is a different debate altogether.
Please look at my comments above if you don't like the extension and explain to me in a logical fashion why you don't like it. Keep in mind that you might not like it for your own personal reasons. That doesn't mean it is an ill-advised contract. It might simply mean you aren't aware of how things work in today's market or you are unwilling to acknowledge the current market. By the way this not "a huge contract based on one semi-ncaa tournament appearance" and it is not an extension based upon the performance at the end of last season. It is obviously based upon what he has done in his entirety as a coach at Iowa. Certainly he has performed at an above average level in that time and that is the premise for this extension.
