Whole Ferentz contract extension/rollover thing is a lot to consider

ROSEMONT, Ill. — Iowa athletics director Gary Barta had to cut out of the Big Ten athletics director meetings early Wednesday. The topic, from my end anyway, was going to be the fact that his football coach has just — JUST!!! — four years remaining on his contract.

Yes, the 10-year deal Kirk Ferentz signed in 2010, the contract that made Iowa/Barta/Ferentz a hugely hot take waiting to happen on sports talk radio, on blogs and in Forbes magazine of all places, now has just four years remaining on it. Remember the 'buyout countdown' clock that everyone, including me, kept through 2014 and kind of forgot in 2015 — oh, the healing powers of 12-0 — that's all but evaporated after the Hawkeyes' 12-2 2015 season. (But for those keeping track, the buyout will be just more than $8 million in January 2017 after this season.)

Iowa and Ferentz have a deal in place for nearly $4 million a year through 2019 (not including bonuses, which did reach $1 million last season). And, as of now, that's it.

The last time I talked with Barta about this he wasn't terribly declarative. This was in March.

'What we're focusing on is what do we need to do as a program to continue to be at the top, near the top and be able to compete for championships?,' Barta said. 'It's been focused on a lot of things (those talks). It hasn't been focused on his contract specifically. We're focusing on facilities, we're focusing on staff, we're focusing on assistant coaches, we're focusing on what the student athletes need. That's really been all we've talked about.'

Do you guys believe the four years left on Ferentz's contract isn't being discussed? (Pretending I can see hands go up or down and ignoring the ones that stayed down.) Me neither.

The college football coach contract standard is to have five years remaining at any given time. This tells recruits that the coach at the very least has a piece of paper that says he'll be there for your entire career at the school.

Here's what Barta has said about that:

'What I would say to anybody is Kirk's been here 17 years as the head coach,' Barta said. 'I think any recruit who wonders about continuity and longevity, Kirk might be the definition in the dictionary if you looked it up under football coaches. I've said many, many times, I hope he ends up retiring here.'

Ferentz will be 61 in August. He doesn't golf and I'm not sure if he has a fishing pole, so let's just assume he's not going to be sidling up to Me TV and lost episodes of 'The Rockford Files' or 'Car 54, Where Are You?' He pushed his team to a 12-0 regular season in 2015. It was validation that Ferentz ball works and can win in a big way, but the measure isn't one year. The five previous seasons ranged from pretty good (2013 and the Outback Bowl) to awful (4-8 and no bowl in 2012).

Then, there was 2014 and bitterness. If we're negotiating a rollover or an extension, you have to take emotion out of it. What do you toss out? What do you see as acceptable? What is Iowa's standard? This is the eternal discussion. I'm at 7.75 wins a year. Let me know what you come up with.

One side of the table plays up 2015 and Iowa's first Rose Bowl appearance in 25 seasons. It also has a returning starter at quarterback and an all-American cornerback for 2016. The other side has already said it wants the coach to retire in your colors, but it's not all that simple when it comes to deciding the course.

I think Ferentz has graduated from needing market forces to do the negotiating for him. In 2010, the constant calls from the NFL were a powerful influencer. Barta also knows the lesson of the 2010 deal, which — you know it's true — was THE move at the time. Iowa was, after all, coming off an Orange Bowl victory and had sky-high hopes for 2010. No one saw five years of pretty good and kind of mediocre and then a 51-14 loss at Minnesota in 2014 coming.

Are Iowa and Ferentz working on an extension? We don't know. Both sides are exceedingly good at keeping that quiet. I remember walking back from lunch in the Old Capitol and seeing the email for the 2010 extension on my phone and saying a quiet, 'Touche, Gary Barta' to myself.

Should they be? If they can find accord, sure, why not? Maybe $5 million a year would work with zero buyout, a concession I'm sure Ferentz and agent Neil Cornrich would consider this time around (or would at least be interested in negotiating).

What are other alternatives?

Rollovers are an idea and can come in a million different forms. I like one that's based on mutual consent. Hey, you both still have to like each other, right?

What I like even better is a predetermined date for an extension based on a mutual agreement between both sides. This would include escalators in compensation and term of extension based on performance. That way if 7-5 happens, the compensation fits. If 12-0 happens, same.

That makes perfect sense. This is what I would push for if I were on management side of the table. I also know it's naked naivete on my part.

Let me put it this way: Ferentz and Cornrich homered in 2010. I also believe having a football coach with just four years on his deal and counting down is untenable. It'll be a recruiting thing, you just know it will be. I don't think that'll be enough, however, for Barta to serve up a batting practice lob this time around. Ferentz obviously isn't in the same position, either. By 2019, he'll have made nearly $40 million. That's still coming no matter what.

'There's nothing guaranteed in sports and nobody owes you anything, other than what's agreed upon,' Ferentz said last August. 'That's the way I've always looked at it and that's why having a contract ... I did learn in the National Football League, it's probably good to have one. It's probably good to make sure you know what's in it. Outside of that, you know ups and downs are going to come. There are going to be highs and lows. It could be a change of leadership.

'... There's no guarantees, and nobody owes me anything, certainly.'

What about the future of the future's future? I mean the 'Brian Ferentz as Iowa's future head coach' train? I don't know if that's his burning desire or life goal. I think the UI political environment is favorable for this possibility. I don't think he has to go to a lesser league to try on the head coaching hat (probably does need to, however, progress to offensive coordinator at some point).

So, then, what's the balance between the acute institutional knowledge that Kirk Ferentz owns with the Iowa program (going on 18 years as head coach and 27 overall at the school) and what's fair for Iowa?

I don't think this is why Barta left the Big Ten meetings early, but maybe.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com