Iowa AD on Ferentz's performance, 2016 tickets, night football

IOWA CITY — One year ago, Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta approached heavy turbulence facing his football program, and he steered into it head-on.

Iowa finished with a subpar 7-6 record in 2014, leading some fans to anger and others to apathy. Some athletic directors would have fired the coach or forced massive staffing changes. Barta instead allowed Kirk Ferentz to manage the program without interference. Ferentz rewarded Barta's hands-off approach with a school-record 12 wins and the program's first Rose Bowl invitation in 25 years. Ferentz was named national coach of the year by multiple organizations.

Barta avoids discussing one of his programs until its season is complete, regardless of its success. But now that Iowa finished No. 9 in the final Associated Press poll, Barta encapsulated the football season in one word.

'Phenomenal,' Barta said en route from Monday's national title game in Arizona. 'It met and exceeded expectations. And that's the 10,000-foot response. I think it comes as no surprise that that would be my response. Now we'll break it down even further. Kirk will go through his process and then we'll sit down.

'But in a nutshell, I don't think it was a surprise to anybody that it was a fantastic season, a great journey, a great credit to our student-athletes. One of the things I said last year in January was ... one of the reasons, among many, that I knew the foundation was strong was our student-athletes were still 100 percent committed to the program, to Kirk, to the staff and it paid great dividends this year.'

Iowa's magical-type season on the field did not translate to box-office success at home. Iowa's season-ticket sales dropped 17 percent, not only because of the 2014 season but because of a weak home schedule. Only one of Iowa's six FBS home opponents finished with a winning record, and twice attendance dipped below 60,000. Iowa still finished 23rd nationally in attendance but it was at a program low since 2000.

That won't be the case this fall. Iowa plays host to three 10-win squads in Northwestern, Wisconsin and Michigan. In-state rival Iowa State and border foe Nebraska also play at Kinnick Stadium, as does five-time FCS champion North Dakota State.

Ticket packages likely will be unveiled later this month. Prices are not finalized for 2016, but a slight increase is likely.

'If we do (increase ticket prices), it won't be anything dramatic,' Barta said. 'We're still finalizing that. If we do, it'll probably be based on having an inflationary increase. We didn't increase last year, but it won't be anything extraordinary. We haven't finalized anything, but we're close.

'We'll reward — as we always have but maybe more so — we'll reward our season-ticket holders who were with us last year and give them the best price points, the best advantage and the first opportunity to renew and add any season tickets that they'd like. Then we'll quickly add any who come back and any new ones after that.'

After a three-year layoff from home primetime football, Iowa also staged two successful night football games last season. The first was in mid-September against Pittsburgh. The other was a mid-November clash against longtime rival Minnesota, which produced the season's only sellout.

It's possible the Hawkeyes will stage at least one and maybe two night games at Kinnick Stadium this coming fall.

'I think the chances of that becoming the norm are a little bit greater,' Barta said. 'I don't have total control of that, but I'll do what I did last year. I'll have conversations with the conference and our TV partners.

'I would like to do it again. I could envision one or two again. We're not in total control of that, but we can certainly make our conference aware that it was a good experience for us, and we'd be interested in doing it again.'

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