Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz Is Furious With The NCAA's Punishment

Longtime Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz is not happy.

The veteran college football head coach is speaking out following the NCAA's punishment for Iowa's football program. The Hawkeyes have been hit with a punishment for tampering violations.

Iowa has been forced to vacate wins, pay a $25,000 fine and serve a year of probation. Ferentz previously served a suspension during the 2024 season, too.

The NCAA found that Iowa, including Ferentz and assistant coach Jon Budmayr, had contact with a player before he entered the transfer portal.

The NCAA released a statement on the decision.

"When respected individuals identify their mistakes and take responsibility for them, it sets the standard for appropriate behavior within their programs, universities and, more importantly, across the broader industry," the panel said. "The panel appreciates the actions taken by Iowa and Ferentz to publicly address his and his staff member's conduct."

Ferentz spoke out on Tuesday

The Iowa coach appeared on SiriusXM with Danny Kanell and Dusty Dvoracek.

"Two-plus years to, as you said, investigate this, that's interesting," Ferentz said. "It was an interesting process, to say the least. Obviously, disappointed. Strongly feel it was overly harsh. It was an overreach, I believe. My frustration would be there were a lot of details involved. I think that, especially given two-plus years, you'd consider the facts, what really took place. I think what we offered up a year and a half ago was more than ample. It is what it is. They made the decision. We'll live with it.

"I think it's just illustrative of some of the challenges that face us in college football. I would suggest, maybe, just a lack of being able to really think through things and really consider circumstances. To me, there's a big difference between an impermissible contact and tampering. Huge difference. The facts of this whole story kind of convey that. Again, it's the world we deal with. We'll accept their, whatever it was they did yesterday, and we'll move forward."

Ferentz and Iowa will move forward into 2026, though they're not happy.

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This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 6:46 PM.