New UNI AD Megan Franklin talks NCAA changes, FCS football and facilities

CEDAR FALLS — Three busy weeks into her new job as Northern Iowa’s athletics director, Megan Franklin may not have all the detailed answers just yet that the most fervent Panthers fans are looking for.

Before and after her introductory news conference on May 14, Franklin was taken across the state with President Mark Nook and a collection of UNI coaches on the Panther Caravan.

“It was clear that fans were very excited for this opportunity to think about the next era for UNI athletics," Franklin said. “My top takeaways (from Panther Caravan) are this: one, University of Northern Iowa has the hearts of Iowans. (And) there is a sense that this is a special time here as well.”

Funding for UNI football and the future of the FCS

Given the itinerary, Franklin’s first three weeks haven’t provided much opportunity to put UNI’s athletics department under the proverbial microscope. Any sort of detailed, rhetorical diagnosis of all things good, bad or indifferent requires more time on the job.

For example, when asked about public data from 2022 indicating UNI football received the second-lowest annual funding of Missouri Valley Football Conference schools — to Western Illinois, which has since left the MVFC — Franklin backed away from specific answers.

“We will go through a program review to (know) how are we currently funded as it relates to our peers,” Franklin said. “Then, what does that mean as far as when we have the opportunity to invest in our sport programs, what are our priorities and how do we get there?

“It’s not going to happen overnight, but I will tell you this, they’re going to go out and they’re going to compete and they’re going to recruit and they’re going to work and work and work.”

She indicated fervent support for the FCS model and belief its unique nature will continue to offer a product that will withstand all that’s changing in the sport in Division I.

She also revealed the FCS is building a new strategic plan as the landscape of college athletics encounters massive change.

“I think FCS football is the model that we all have grown up loving about sport,” Franklin said. “It is a student-athlete centric model. I am all in on supporting the conversation around the health and well-being of FCS football.”

What the House vs. NCAA settlement means for UNI

Less than two weeks after Franklin took the job at UNI, she and Nook were met with the news on an MVFC meeting that a landmark settlement had reached the precipice of passage, as terms were agreed to for a $2.8 billion dollar settlement in the House v. NCAA case.

Terms of the settlement would eradicate the long-standing amateurism model among Power Five conferences, allowing shared revenue with student-athletes as soon as the fall of 2025.

“(We’re) trying to have an understanding from NCAA leadership on what this means for mid-major institutions as part of the settlement,” Franklin said. “It’s going to be a shared approach across the (conference) and then it will be, obviously, individual institutions as well working through it. If (the settlement) is and stays as stated you do have to start to think and plan. Now, I will say that the Missouri Valley Conference has a very thoughtful approach to propose.”

Facilities projects are integral to UNI’s ‘legacy era’

Less broadly, Franklin still needs time to gain intimate knowledge of numerous capital projects the athletics department is engaged in. Projects she’s pointed out as integral to the “legacy era” she coined at her introductory news conference.

Phase one, of multiple phases, of a UNI-Dome renovation began earlier this spring with the replacement of its fabric roof.

“Now we have a chance to give back to (the UNI-Dome), if you will,” Franklin said. “It’s been giving us so much, that this is now our time to say ‘thank you, we’ll take care of you’ as part of this (Our Tomorrow) campaign.”

Also among three current capital projects is fundraising for a court sports practice facility that will house men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball.

“It’s been, I think, about three months since the Board (of Regents) approved the project and so you can imagine we’ve been engaging architects and engineers and coaches and university colleagues on really framing that project up so that we can move on that as quick as possible,” Franklin said. “It’s exciting and we’re moving.”

And after losing its home in the West Gym this past year, a practice facility for wrestling was a late addition to the “Our Tomorrow” campaign last fall. As a result, Doug Schwab’s Panthers have been temporarily displaced to the USA Mat Club, 2 miles off campus.

Since adding the practice facility to the campaign, the Board of Regents has approved its plan. However, sources have told The Gazette discussions have been had for a public-private partnership for the facility — set to be just southwest of McLeod Center — that would expand it into a multiuse development.

“I’m very grateful for the current (practice) facility,” Franklin said. “Like the other two projects it is a priority project for us. It’s exciting to be able to talk about three capital projects going on right now. This is an opportunity for us to think of this as a legacy era and all three of those capital projects are opportunities for legacy.”