The NCAA found Kirk Ferentz, the head coach, and Jon Budmayr, who was an offensive analyst at the time, guilty of Level-II violations with regards to impermissible contact. Even though the athlete has not been explicitly named, everyone has surmised that it is Cade McNamara. As a result, the Hawkeyes have to vacate four wins from its 10-win 2023 season. Their season record for that year officially drops from 10-4 to 6-3.

According to reports, Budmayr participated in 13 phone calls and sent two text messages to McNamara and his father in November 2022, before he had officially entered the transfer portal. Budmayr facilitated a phone call between McNamara and Kirk Ferentz, who reportedly assured the quarterback that he would have a home at Iowa.

McNamara played as a quarterback for the University of Michigan before the inception of this issue. Following this exchange, it took only a few days for McNamara to go through the transfer portal process and join the football team at the University of Iowa.

As tampering had occurred, McNamara was technically ineligible when he played the first five games of the 2023 season, leading to the vacated wins against Utah State, Iowa State, Western Michigan, and Michigan State.

The program also put itself on probation for one year by the NCAA.  Additionally, the school fined itself $25,000 and imposed a two-week ban on all football recruiting communications during the 2026 calendar year. Also, Iowa reduced its recruiting person-days by 24 days. The sanctions restricted Ferentz from conducting off-campus recruiting for two weeks in 2025 and imposed a four-day recruiting restriction on Budmayr during the spring evaluation period.

There is also an impact in the history books. Prior to the ruling, Ferentz had a 213-128 coaching record in 27 years at Iowa. If he has to subtract four wins and one loss, the record would go back to 209-127. This still keeps him as the winningest coach in conference history as the one in second place, Woody Hayes, had 205 wins.

Iowa Frustrated with NCAA Decision

Iowa expressed disappointment with the NCAA’s decision. They feel the wins being vacated is too harsh for such an infraction. They also took full responsibility for it, which ultimately did not result in any leniency by the NCAA.

“I am disappointed by the NCAA’s decision today,” Ferentz said. “Throughout the process, our program has been open and honest about my mistake — contacting a potential player in the hours before it was permissible by NCAA rules. I felt it was important to make amends for the issue, which is why I voluntarily served a one-game suspension to start the 2023 season. I believe today’s decision by the NCAA to vacate four wins in our 2023 season is overly harsh and inconsistent with the violation. As I tell our team and staff, it is how you respond and move forward that defines you. Our focus is on the 2026 season, and that is how we are moving forward.”

The president, Barb Wilson, also shared similar sentiments on this ruling.

“We are very disappointed in today’s removal by the Committee on Infractions,” the statement said. “Throughout this nearly two-and-a-half-year process, the University has fully cooperated with the NCAA enforcement staff. More importantly, when the facts revealed that violations had taken place, the institution and the head coach publicly accepted full responsibility and self-imposed several significant sanctions, something few others have done. We believe the decision to add the penalty of the forfeiture of wins is unwarranted. The matter is now closed, and we are moving forward.”

When we compare this punishment with the ones meted out to Michigan for its sign stealing scandal, or to FSU for its tampering in 2024, we see a discrepancy. Neither Michigan nor FSU had to vacate any wins.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions stated that vacating wins is their standard tool when a player competes while “ineligible”. Because tampering happened before McNamara’s transfer, he was technically ineligible for every game he played at Iowa. In Michigan’s case, while the scouting was illegal, the players themselves were technically eligible, which is why their wins remained. Instead, the Wolverines received a massive multimillion-dollar fine, one of the largest in NCAA history, to offset the lack of a postseason ban or vacated wins.

The NCAA publicly praised Iowa and Ferentz for taking responsibility and “setting the standard” for behavior during the investigation. In contrast, the Michigan investigation involved significant legal friction.

Ultimately, the Hawkeyes did choose the higher road and were still punished for it. This could also be an issue of timing, as the NCAA is currently dealing with a loss of control over the sport with the federal government trying to step over its toes with a recent executive order.