Beth Goetz named University of Iowa’s permanent athletics director, losing interim tag

IOWA CITY — Beth Goetz is here to stay.

Goetz, who has served as the University of Iowa’s interim athletics director since Aug. 1 after Gary Barta retired from the role, has been named the university’s permanent athletics director, the UI announced Thursday.

“Beth is a talented and dynamic leader, and the national search we conducted has substantiated that she is the best athletics director for the University of Iowa,” UI President Barbara Wilson said in a statement. “She has done a remarkable job as interim, and I am confident she will lead our athletics department and student-athletes to new levels of achievement both on the field of play and in the classroom.”

Goetz, who signed a five-year contract, will earn a base salary of $850,000 in addition to up to $175,000 in annual performance incentives and $200,000 per year in deferred compensation. She also will receive either up to two university-provided vehicles or a car allowance of $1,500 per month, according to her contract reviewed by The Gazette after a public records request.

Her base salary as interim athletics director was $650,000, which was the same as Barta’s base salary when he announced his retirement.

Goetz will oversee a department that sponsors 22 intercollegiate sports with more than 600 total student-athletes. The department is projected to bring in about $140.3 million in income this fiscal year.

Goetz first arrived at Iowa in September 2022 as the deputy athletics director. Eleven months later, she assumed the interim role. Goetz — already with athletics director experience from stints at Minnesota and Ball State — earned rave reviews during her first five-plus months as Iowa’s interim.

"Every coach is behind her 100 percent,“ Lisa Bluder, Iowa’s head women’s basketball coach said at the Big Ten’s basketball media days before the 2023-24 season. ”She is an unbelievable team builder. She’s a great leader. … I just think if we don’t hire her, that would be really, really not a smart thing to do.“

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Every active head coach on campus released statements Thursday in support for Goetz following the news of her permanent appointment.

Head football coach Kirk Ferentz said in a statement he was “pleased that Beth has been officially hired as our university’s newest director of athletics.”

“She has a vision that is respectful of the traditions of our athletics programs while embracing opportunities in the rapidly changing college sports landscape,” Ferentz said. “Beth is highly professional, and I believe is well-equipped to navigate this new era of collegiate sports.”

Men’s wrestling coach Tom Brands said the “Hawks got the best” with Goetz as the leader. “Beth Goetz earned her way into the business by not making it about business,” Brands said. “She is about the right things.”

Many of Goetz’s colleagues from past jobs also have gone out of their way to praise her, including Boston Celtics team president Brad Stevens.

“I’ve told everybody that would listen everywhere she’s been, and everybody I know, that she’s one of the best administrators and leaders I’ve ever worked with,” said Stevens, who worked with her at Butler University in Indiana, in a phone call with The Gazette last year.

Goetz, 49, is now permanently in charge of a department that has seen unusual longevity at the top position. Barta’s tenure at Iowa lasted exactly 17 years, and Bob Bowlsby was at Iowa — first leading the men’s athletic department before the men’s and women’s departments merged in 2000 — for 15 years before that.

“I am truly honored and humbled to lead Iowa’s storied athletics program, and I am grateful to President Wilson and the search committee for their confidence in my leadership,” Goetz said in a statement. “The University of Iowa is a world-class institution with a demonstrated commitment to athletics excellence.”

Goetz, whose promotion is effective immediately but still needs approved from the Iowa Board of Regents, is the only woman to currently serve as athletics director in the Big Ten. She also is the first woman to be athletic director at Iowa since Christine Grant led the then-separate women’s athletics department from 1973 to 2000.

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Thursday’s announcement concludes an official search process that began late last year. The UI hired TurnkeyZRG to conduct the search and established a 10-person search committee, which included a mix of university and athletics department staff, one current athlete and major donor P. Sue Beckwith.

Nicole Grosland, an associate dean in the UI’s College of Engineering and the committee chair, said the search “produced an impressive group of candidates.”

“The committee had the opportunity to interview multiple sitting athletic directors from across the country,” Grosland said in a statement. “Beth emerged as a finalist with a strong vision to lead the department at this crucial time.”

TurnkeyZRG previously has conducted several other high-profile searches in collegiate athletics, including for the NCAA president, Big 12 commissioner and ACC commissioner.

It is unclear how much the university spent on the search.

The UI’s contract with TurnkeyZRG, which The Gazette obtained last month via a public records request, noted the search firm will receive a fee that is a “percentage of the position’s first-year total cash target compensation.”

The contract, however, did not indicate what that percentage is. The UI has not yet fulfilled a follow-up request for documents that might indicate the percentage.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com