Earlier this month, the NCAA released findings that revealed Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz and assistant coach Jon Budmayr had impermissible contacts with a student-athlete who was enrolled at another school and had not yet entered the NCAA Transfer Portal back in November of 2022.
The NCAA release on the matter shared, in part, the following:
The school, individuals and NCAA enforcement staff agreed on the facts and violations in this case. The parties agreed that throughout November 2022, Budmayr participated in 13 phone calls with the student-athlete and/or his father, as well as sending two text messages. Budmayr also arranged for the student-athlete to speak on the phone with Ferentz, who assured him that he would have a home at Iowa. After those communications, the student-athlete entered the Transfer Portal and a few days later transferred to Iowa. Under current NCAA rules, when a student-athlete transfers to a school that engaged in tampering, the student-athlete becomes ineligible pending reinstatement. The student-athlete competed during the 2023 season before being reinstated.
The player at the center was Cade McNamara, who had spent a few seasons at Michigan and started for the Wolverines for their 2021 run to the College Football Playoff semis before he was beat out for the starting job by JJ McCarthy heading into the 2021 season. In early November McNamara injured his knee during a week three game against UConn and underwent knee surgery, later entering the portal after the Wolverines season
Of course, he ended up a Hawkeye with two seasons of eligibility remaining, and unfortunately suffered a season-ending knee injury in a game against Michigan State in late September of 2023. Come December of 2024, McNamara entered the portal for a second time and landed at East Tennessee State for his final season. He went undrafted this past weekend and received a minicamp invitation from the Titans.
In addition to fully cooperating with the investigation, Iowa and Ferentz instituted a number of self-imposed penalties, and the NCAA hit them with additional penalties that included 1-year of probation and a vacation of all records and wins when McNamara was eligible.
Ferentz was asked recently during a public radio appearance about the penalties handed down, and again took full responsibility before sharing some additional honest thoughts.
"I've pled my whole case on this already, but to me it was more an impermissible contact. We violated a rule, and I own that, but it was hardly tampering. He was geographically, emotionally and in every way departed from that program. They were happy about it. He was happy about it. It was competitive for him to find a new home. A lot of people were reaching out to him."
"So it is what it is. I made up my mind well before [the penalties] that isn't going to change my life at all, so life has gone on."
I do think Ferentz brings up a valid point, and I think it would make sense to have some levels or tiers to tampering if the NCAA ever decided it wanted to get serious about it.
Talking with an injured kid coming off surgery who just lost the starting quarterback battle and isn't living on campus is quite a bit different than texting a recruit you lost out on while he's enrolled and sitting in class on campus like Dabo Swinney has accused Pete Golding and Ole Miss of doing. The two are not the same, so I get what Ferentz is saying about it being more in line with "impermissible contact" like a team contacting a recruit before the calendar turns than the tampering term that is getting thrown around today.
"I would do everything over again," Ferentz goes on to add on the situation. "Other than making the call. I regret doing that. But we took ownership. We cooperated fully."
"You could look at it another way and say, 'Man, we made a mistake by being honest and doing the right thing.' So we try and teach our players that and we all make mistakes and do things that we regret. But you own it, and learn from it and try to improve from it and that's what we try to teach people."
"Unfortunately you don't get rewarded for that, but my expectations weren't real high."
Hear Ferentz's full thoughts in the clip.