NCAA vacates Iowa football wins over Kirk Ferentz's 2022 recruiting violation

(This story has been updated to clarify the number of wins that the Iowa football program must vacate.)

Twenty months ago, Kirk Ferentz stood in front of media members and Iowa Athletics Director Beth Goetz with a remorseful tone.

Iowa’s longtime football coach was accepting a one-game, self-imposed suspension over a recruiting violation involving the late-2022 acquisition of ex-Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara.

“The bottom line is this,” Ferentz said on Aug. 22, 2024. “I tell our players, we abide by the rules. And in this specific case, I did not do that. I made a mistake during the recruiting process. Twenty-six years as a head coach, this is the first potential Level II (NCAA) violation that I’ve had. And it won’t happen again.”

This episode in Iowa football history was revisited on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, as the NCAA handed down the final word over the violation, which involved impermissible contact with McNamara. The one-game suspensions for Ferentz and assistant coach Jon Budmayr were sufficient, the NCAA decided, but victories would be vacated for the 2023 games in which McNamara participated. (Iowa went 4-1 in those games.)

According to the NCAA, McNamara would have been ineligible for the 2023 season but was reinstated for 2024. Thus, Iowa's 5-3 record in the eight games he started in 2024 was not vacated.

Ferentz sat out Iowa's 40-0 win over Illinois State in the 2024 season opener, in which McNamara started. Budmayr also was suspended for that game by the university in the self-imposed penalty. Seth Wallace was the acting head coach for the Hawkeyes that day, though the win officially went toward Ferentz’s career total.

Iowa argued that the vacation of wins was over the top in its appeal to the Division I Committee on Infractions hearing panel.

Before the ruling, Ferentz officially owned a 213-128 coaching record in 27 years at Iowa, including a mark of 18-9 during McNamara’s two seasons — though Deacon Hill was the primary Iowa QB in 2023 after McNamara tore his ACL in Week 5.

McNamara did not play in any of Iowa’s final five games of 2024, which were started by Brendan Sullivan (three times) and Jackson Stratton (twice) after the quarterback reported concussion symptoms. He wound up transferring to East Tennessee State for a seventh year of college.

It was not immediately clear exactly how Ferentz's record in Big Ten history would be adjusted. He surpassed Woody Hayes' 205 wins for No. 1 on the all-time list last season.

Assuming he has to subtract four wins and one loss, Ferentz would be back to a 209-127 record at Iowa entering the Hawkeyes' Sept. 5 season opener against Northern Illinois. But in that case, he still would be the Big Ten's all-time winningest coach.

Iowa did not outline how it will list Ferentz's career record going forward, but said it was "very disappointed" in the NCAA ruling, in a joint statement from Goetz and university President Barbara Wilson.

“Throughout this nearly 2½-year process, the university has fully cooperated with the NCAA enforcement staff," the statement read. "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 of adding the penalty of the forfeiture of wins is unwarranted. The matter is now closed, and we have moved forward.”

Ferentz never mentioned McNamara specifically in that August 2024 news conference but said there were "unique circumstances" surrounding the incident and left it at that. The six-page appeal verdict shed more light on the timeline.

Though the release did not mention McNamara specifically, it noted that Budmayr "had 13 calls with the student-athlete and/or the student-athlete’s father and sent two text messages to the student-athlete. Budmayr also arranged for the student-athlete and Ferentz to have a phone call on Nov. 23, 2022. On the call, Ferentz assured the student-athlete that Iowa was interested in him, and he would have a home there. All contacts occurred prior to the student-athlete entering the transfer portal."

McNamara entered the portal on Nov. 28, 2022, and committed to Iowa on Dec. 1.

The NCAA applauded Ferentz and Iowa for how it handled the situation but stood by the penalties. In addition to vacating four wins and accepting the one-game suspensions, the NCAA tacked on one year of probation, a $25,000 fine to the institution and recruiting restrictions.

"When respected individuals identify their mistakes and take responsibility for them, it sets the standard for appropriate behavior within their programs, universities and, more importantly, across the broader industry," the panel said in its decision. "The panel appreciates the actions taken by Iowa and Ferentz to publicly address his and his staff member's conduct."

Ferentz delivered a statement expressing his disapproval of the "harsh" NCAA ruling.

“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 vacating 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."

Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 31 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad's text-message group at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.