What’s next for Iowa Athletics after Gary Barta’s retirement

IOWA CITY — Gary Barta’s retirement announcement Friday has put the University of Iowa in a position it has not been in for a long time.

It is in the market for a new athletics director.

Over the last 45 years, Iowa has had only two AD searches — one in 1990 when it hired Bob Bowlsby and the other in 2006 when it hired Barta.

Christine Grant and Bump Elliott each spent more than two decades leading the women’s and men’s athletics departments, respectively. Bowlsby was at Iowa for 15 years, first leading men’s athletics before taking over women’s teams upon Grant’s retirement. Barta’s retirement will mark 17 years in Iowa City.

As Iowa approaches the early stages of its third search in nearly five decades, the position is likely to be appealing for many leaders in collegiate athletics.

Kyle Bowlsby, who runs a Dallas-based collegiate athletics search firm and is the son of Bob Bowlsby, said in a tweet Friday current athletics directors “covet” the Iowa job.

“Iowa is seen as a top-20 job in country,” Bowlsby said. “Great fan base. Great city. Cushy job, but seen as having a wealth of potential. If someone is aggressive, Iowa can go higher.”

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Iowa will not have to look far for one possible candidate.

Beth Goetz, who joined Iowa as deputy athletics director last year, has extensive leadership experience at the college level.

Goetz was the interim AD at Minnesota from 2015-16 and the permanent AD at Ball State from 2018-22. She also has been a deputy AD and/or senior woman administrator at Connecticut, Minnesota, Butler and Missouri-St. Louis.

She quickly gained respect from Iowa coaches in the interview process for the deputy AD position, which opened because of Barbara Burke’s retirement.

“We’re crazy if we don’t get her,” men’s wrestling coach Tom Brands remembers thinking after the interview process.

“She is a straight shooter,” Brands said earlier this month. “You could tell the genuineness, trust right away.”

Almost nine months into her tenure as deputy AD, Goetz has familiarity with Iowa while still bringing an outside perspective.

Kansas State’s Gene Taylor, if interested, would be another intriguing option for the Hawkeyes.

Taylor was previously the deputy AD at Iowa before taking the top job at Kansas State. Since arriving in Manhattan, Kan., in 2017, the Wildcats appeared in the Big 12 football championship game and won a Big 12 men’s basketball title.

There is some recent precedent for a sitting Power Five athletics director to leave for another Power Five AD job. John Cohen left Mississippi State for Auburn last year.

Taylor, of course, is far from the only collegiate athletics leader with Iowa connections. UConn deputy AD Jason Butikofer, for example, is an Iowa graduate and former men’s basketball manager during the Tom Davis era. Butikofer, among other tasks, leads UConn’s NIL strategy.

It is too early to know, however, who exactly is interested in the Iowa job or which direction UI President Barbara Wilson will take with the search.

Depending on how long Barta’s successor stays in Iowa City, whoever Wilson hires could have some key decisions to make.

Head coaches for three of Iowa’s most prominent teams — football and men’s and women’s basketball — are 67, 64 and 62, respectively. Additionally, collegiate athletics appears to be in an era of rapid transformation, especially surrounding athlete compensation.

In the meantime, the next step for Iowa will be naming an interim athletics director, which is expected to happen next week.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com