Rob Sand Wants Barta Out

Fryowa

Fryowa

Administrator
New thread because this is a major plot twist, and I'm starting it out in the Football forum to see if everyone can play nice. This either stays on topic or gets nuked, it's about the lawsuit and impacts, not a forum for commentary on the current state of civilization or arguing about whether Coach XYZ was a racist or not.

The U has decided to settle for $4 million, and Rob Sand doesn't want taxpayer money to pay for it unless Barta is fired with no severance or benefits. In his reasoning he cites Barta's long history of F-ups under his watch, and I have to say I agree. Send him packing; it's been enough.

What do I think will really happen??? The athletic department will cover the funds 100% out of it's own coffers (no taxpayer money) to appease Sand and keep GB on staff. Kirk has GB in his back pocket and ain't about to let him be run out of town.

Quotes from Rob Sand:

"Under Gary Barta’s leadership at the University of Iowa Athletics Department, we’ve had the Peter Gray scandal plus three instances of discrimination totaling nearly $7 million in damages (setting aside other suits)."

"After the largest settlement, Barta asserted no wrong was done. Now we have a new matter for $4 million more, and for the first time they want part paid from the taxpayers’ general fund, even though they now collect tens of millions annually thru the Big Ten TV deal.

"Enough is enough. Clear personal accountability is necessary. I will not support taxpayers funding this settlement unless Gary Barta is no longer employed at the university and forfeits any severance or similar pay. I encourage you to join me. Real accountability will help prevent discrimination, protecting both taxpayers and future victims."
 
He is in a leadership position. It would seem one of the requirements of the position would be to minimize risk to the organization. There have been a number of points in recent years where Barta did not protect the university by properly managing risk. This feels like a good ol' boy country club atmosphere lacking any real accountability for those in the inner circle.
 
SwirlinLingerie said:
He is in a leadership position. It would seem one of the requirements of the position would be to minimize risk to the organization. There have been a number of points in recent years where Barta did not protect the university by properly managing risk. This feels like a good ol' boy country club atmosphere lacking any real accountability for those in the inner circle.
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The reason he's been allowed to continue (in my opinion) is because his catastrophes haven't used taxpayer money. Now they're asking for general fund money to pay for part of it. I know I don't want any of my cash going towards this.
 
Gents, some perspective is needed. Gary Barta has overseen the athletic department for a long time. With its revenue, employees, endowment and facilaties, Iowa athletics is the equivalent of a billion dollar company. That is not hyperbole. Any NFL franchise is worth a couple bill. That is for just one football team. While a college athletic department is not able to be sold (yet LOL), that does not change the nature of the business being a massive and lucrative entity. Barta is the equivalent of the CEO of a massive company.

Companies the size of Iowa, that have money and are high profile, draw law suits and claims on a regular basis. In legal venacular, lawsuits are the cost of doing business. Companies settle bullshit lawsuits for way too much money every day. I have seen it in my practice more times that I can count. It just is what it is. Indeed, this may not even be Barta's call to make. Iowa has lawyers, adjusters, general counsel and lot's of folks making this call. Barta is doing what the experts around him recommend. That is what good CEO's do.

If you are a board of directors, and your CEO has run your company profitably for over a decade, and consistently grown its revenue and value far above other industries or market expectations, you don't fire him because of a couple lawsuits or a couple of scandals. You look at the totality of the circumstances and decide if he is doing his job well or not. Of course, that includes considering that all Big 10 schools are rising with TV revenue, so he should not get credit for all of the department's success, but he should get some. The captain of the ship gets more praise and blame than is actually deserved for sure.

I am Barta neutral. I don't think he is awesome, but I don't think he sucks simply because he hitched his wagon to a legendary football coach and is not rocking that boat. If you want to fire him for cause, with respect, settling a 20 million dollar case for 4 million dollars to put a high profile lawsuit to bed is not the dumbest thing a CEO has ever approved of. Not by a long shot.
 
Fryowa said:
The reason he's been allowed to continue (in my opinion) is because his catastrophes haven't used taxpayer money. Now they're asking for general fund money to pay for part of it. I know I don't want any of my cash going towards this.
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Meh, you'll pay like $4 and all the clown fans have to pay as well. It's really win-win.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
Gents, some perspective is needed. Gary Barta has overseen the athletic department for a long time. With its revenue, employees, endowment and facilaties, Iowa athletics is the equivalent of a billion dollar company. That is not hyperbole. Any NFL franchise is worth a couple bill. That is for just one football team. While a college athletic department is not able to be sold (yet LOL), that does not change the nature of the business being a massive and lucrative entity. Barta is the equivalent of the CEO of a massive company.

Companies the size of Iowa, that have money and are high profile, draw law suits and claims on a regular basis. In legal venacular, lawsuits are the cost of doing business. Companies settle bullshit lawsuits for way too much money every day. I have seen it in my practice more times that I can count. It just is what it is. Indeed, this may not even be Barta's call to make. Iowa has lawyers, adjusters, general counsel and lot's of folks making this call. Barta is doing what the experts around him recommend. That is what good CEO's do.

If you are a board of directors, and your CEO has run your company profitably for over a decade, and consistently grown its revenue and value far above other industries or market expectations, you don't fire him because of a couple lawsuits or a couple of scandals. You look at the totality of the circumstances and decide if he is doing his job well or not. Of course, that includes considering that all Big 10 schools are rising with TV revenue, so he should not get credit for all of the department's success, but he should get some. The captain of the ship gets more praise and blame than is actually deserved for sure.

I am Barta neutral. I don't think he is awesome, but I don't think he sucks simply because he hitched his wagon to a legendary football coach and is not rocking that boat. If you want to fire him for cause, with respect, settling a 20 million dollar case for 4 million dollars to put a high profile lawsuit to bed is not the dumbest thing a CEO has ever approved of. Not by a long shot.
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While I agree that settling it is the way to go because this is a settlement that is likely barely above defense costs and it avoids awkward depositions and trial witnesses, I disagree about being Barta neutral.

You correctly note how much TV revenues have expanded, through no effort of GarBar. There has been a massive asset bubble brewing for over a decade. There are all kinds of CEOs whose sole claim to fame is being CEO when a big bubble was underway. Barta is in that camp. I am 100% convinced that Barta is absolutely NOT the guy you want if interest rates stay high for 5 years and we have persistent economic doldrums. Anyone can raise money when the stock market goes up 30% a year and land goes up 20% a year, but it takes a different style of grifter to raise money when shit hits the fan. In the dot com bubble it took over 3 years from the Fed topping out on rates for the stock market to bottom and it took 13 or 14 years to hit the old highs. In the Great Recession rates peaked in summer of '06 and shit didn't hit the fan until deep into 2008, market didn't bottom until March of 2009. We're in like the second inning of a downturn and Barta ain't gonna be the cat we want running the ship as it starts to take on water.
 
Holy smokes. So it's a done deal now then. Goes to show that what happened last wk with all the names being dropped from the suit as a things were in motion kind of deal. So 4 million spread out over 7 or 8 dudes minus their lawyer fees isn't exactly going to let them all run off to retire.

Barta sure has some balls on him I'll give him that. For him to suggest that the $ come from the taxpayers is quite the flex to begin with. Then for Sand to come back this quick and say not so fast Cowboy is pure awesomeness. Here's a guy that's in a position of power actually putting his foot down. Does the school have to listen to Sand? Does Sand have the muscle to force the school to pony up a different way? As much as several folks would like Barta to be gone I can't see the school bending over and doing that. The guy has more lives then a cat I swear.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
Gents, some perspective is needed. Gary Barta has overseen the athletic department for a long time. With its revenue, employees, endowment and facilaties, Iowa athletics is the equivalent of a billion dollar company. That is not hyperbole. Any NFL franchise is worth a couple bill. That is for just one football team. While a college athletic department is not able to be sold (yet LOL), that does not change the nature of the business being a massive and lucrative entity. Barta is the equivalent of the CEO of a massive company.

Companies the size of Iowa, that have money and are high profile, draw law suits and claims on a regular basis. In legal venacular, lawsuits are the cost of doing business. Companies settle bullshit lawsuits for way too much money every day. I have seen it in my practice more times that I can count. It just is what it is. Indeed, this may not even be Barta's call to make. Iowa has lawyers, adjusters, general counsel and lot's of folks making this call. Barta is doing what the experts around him recommend. That is what good CEO's do.

If you are a board of directors, and your CEO has run your company profitably for over a decade, and consistently grown its revenue and value far above other industries or market expectations, you don't fire him because of a couple lawsuits or a couple of scandals. You look at the totality of the circumstances and decide if he is doing his job well or not. Of course, that includes considering that all Big 10 schools are rising with TV revenue, so he should not get credit for all of the department's success, but he should get some. The captain of the ship gets more praise and blame than is actually deserved for sure.

I am Barta neutral. I don't think he is awesome, but I don't think he sucks simply because he hitched his wagon to a legendary football coach and is not rocking that boat. If you want to fire him for cause, with respect, settling a 20 million dollar case for 4 million dollars to put a high profile lawsuit to bed is not the dumbest thing a CEO has ever approved of. Not by a long shot.
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Perspective is this and it took me awhile to learn this with a career between academia and the private sector. The bottom line in business is mostly...the bottom line.... money success. In academia, the bottom line is the process. Barta's criticism will be judged on the process.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
Gents, some perspective is needed. Gary Barta has overseen the athletic department for a long time. With its revenue, employees, endowment and facilaties, Iowa athletics is the equivalent of a billion dollar company. That is not hyperbole. Any NFL franchise is worth a couple bill. That is for just one football team. While a college athletic department is not able to be sold (yet LOL), that does not change the nature of the business being a massive and lucrative entity. Barta is the equivalent of the CEO of a massive company.

Companies the size of Iowa, that have money and are high profile, draw law suits and claims on a regular basis. In legal venacular, lawsuits are the cost of doing business. Companies settle bullshit lawsuits for way too much money every day. I have seen it in my practice more times that I can count. It just is what it is. Indeed, this may not even be Barta's call to make. Iowa has lawyers, adjusters, general counsel and lot's of folks making this call. Barta is doing what the experts around him recommend. That is what good CEO's do.

If you are a board of directors, and your CEO has run your company profitably for over a decade, and consistently grown its revenue and value far above other industries or market expectations, you don't fire him because of a couple lawsuits or a couple of scandals. You look at the totality of the circumstances and decide if he is doing his job well or not. Of course, that includes considering that all Big 10 schools are rising with TV revenue, so he should not get credit for all of the department's success, but he should get some. The captain of the ship gets more praise and blame than is actually deserved for sure.

I am Barta neutral. I don't think he is awesome, but I don't think he sucks simply because he hitched his wagon to a legendary football coach and is not rocking that boat. If you want to fire him for cause, with respect, settling a 20 million dollar case for 4 million dollars to put a high profile lawsuit to bed is not the dumbest thing a CEO has ever approved of. Not by a long shot.
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The biggest liability of GB being employed is that he serves at the behest of Kirk instead of the other way around. That has allowed personnel decisions that have had a huge negative effect on company performance, i.e. hiring and retaining his kid who has no business in that position to start with, let alone for multiple years.

There is no, "Brian reports to me, not Kirk."

Farta reports to Kirk Ferentz and his donor army. An AD who's at arm's length to the football coach would've stopped Brian from being retained, if not hired, in the first place.
 
Fryowa said:
The biggest liability of GB being employed is that he serves at the behest of Kirk instead of the other way around. That has allowed personnel decisions that have had a huge negative effect on company performance, i.e. hiring and retaining his kid who has no business in that position to start with, let alone for multiple years.

There is no, "Brian reports to me, not Kirk."

Farta reports to Kirk Ferentz and his donor army. An AD who's at arm's length to the football coach would've stopped Brian from being retained, if not hired, in the first place.
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So how does a new hire change this? KF is just going to say "whew" and shape up? Maybe I guess.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Does the school have to listen to Sand? Does Sand have the muscle to force the school to pony up a different way? As much as several folks would like Barta to be gone I can't see the school bending over and doing that. The guy has more lives then a cat I swear.
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They don't necessarily have to listen to him otherwise he'd just make a decision to flip Barta the middle finger and be done with it. But he's in a position of power with no connection to the football program and he has a lot of influence. The other thing people forget is there are more non-sports fans in the state by a large margin than there are dedicated Iowa football fans. First of all the Cryclone contingent is gonna show up in IC with flaming pitchforks. And there will be a massive pushback on tax money paying this thing, especially with social media fervor being all the rage today.

Highly, HIGHLY doubt Barta gets fired. The athletic department will just pay the bill and move on.
 
HawkGold said:
So how does a new hire change this? KF is just going to say "whew" and shape up? Maybe I guess.
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Kirk's excuse and defense for retaining Brian has always been, "HF didn't fire coaches and I'm not going to start." But Hayden Fry didn't have anyone that glaringly needed to be fired. If an AD had influence over hiring Kurt wouldn't be in that position to defend in the first place.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
Gents, some perspective is needed. Gary Barta has overseen the athletic department for a long time. With its revenue, employees, endowment and facilaties, Iowa athletics is the equivalent of a billion dollar company. That is not hyperbole. Any NFL franchise is worth a couple bill. That is for just one football team. While a college athletic department is not able to be sold (yet LOL), that does not change the nature of the business being a massive and lucrative entity. Barta is the equivalent of the CEO of a massive company.

Companies the size of Iowa, that have money and are high profile, draw law suits and claims on a regular basis. In legal venacular, lawsuits are the cost of doing business. Companies settle bullshit lawsuits for way too much money every day. I have seen it in my practice more times that I can count. It just is what it is. Indeed, this may not even be Barta's call to make. Iowa has lawyers, adjusters, general counsel and lot's of folks making this call. Barta is doing what the experts around him recommend. That is what good CEO's do.

If you are a board of directors, and your CEO has run your company profitably for over a decade, and consistently grown its revenue and value far above other industries or market expectations, you don't fire him because of a couple lawsuits or a couple of scandals. You look at the totality of the circumstances and decide if he is doing his job well or not. Of course, that includes considering that all Big 10 schools are rising with TV revenue, so he should not get credit for all of the department's success, but he should get some. The captain of the ship gets more praise and blame than is actually deserved for sure.

I am Barta neutral. I don't think he is awesome, but I don't think he sucks simply because he hitched his wagon to a legendary football coach and is not rocking that boat. If you want to fire him for cause, with respect, settling a 20 million dollar case for 4 million dollars to put a high profile lawsuit to bed is not the dumbest thing a CEO has ever approved of. Not by a long shot.
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Nice take.
 
Fryowa said:
Kirk's excuse and defense for retaining Brian has always been, "HF didn't fire coaches and I'm not going to start." But Hayden Fry didn't have anyone that glaringly needed to be fired. If an AD had influence over hiring Kurt wouldn't be in that position to defend in the first place.
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All things said, not much changes. It will ding Iowa some on recruiting, but nothing catastrophic. Some positive changes will be made. Life goes on.

186,000 per person is actually a pretty strong settlement as these things go. This means that there were embarrassing and harmful things did occur, but by the letter of the law, not enough to take to the EZ.

The average claim for racial discrimination in the work place is about 40,000. This was not a minor settlement in terms of what is paid per person. $4.2 ml isn't a big hardship on the athletic department.
 
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