Tampering violations occurred in the Iowa football program when current football head coach Kirk Ferentz and assistant coach Jon Budmayr had impermissible contacts with a student-athlete who was enrolled at another NCAA school at the time and who had not yet entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, according to a decision released by a Division I Committee on Infractions hearing panel. Budmayr also communicated with the student-athlete's parent before the student-athlete entered the Transfer Portal. Ferentz previously agreed that he also violated head coach responsibility rules due to his awareness of and personal involvement in the violations.
Violations
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 violations in this case are classified as Level II-Mitigated for all parties.
Penalties
Since 2018, Division I member schools have considered student-athletes who were "tampered with" and subsequently enrolled at the tampering school and competed to have competed while ineligible. To address ineligible competition, the Committee on Infractions consistently prescribes a vacation of records penalty.
Ferentz and Budmayr resolved their respective cases through negotiated resolutions and served suspensions, and Ferentz publicly accepted accountability for the violations. The panel noted that the lapse in judgment in this case did not call into question Ferentz's integrity or decades of running a compliant football program and appreciated his cooperation and contrition in this case.
"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."
This case was ultimately resolved through an infractions hearing because, despite the agreement on the violations in this case, the school did not agree with the application of the vacation of records penalty, asserting that the penalty is outdated. However, NCAA members have consistently treated the vacation of records penalty as a means of addressing conduct at the time that it occurred (i.e., the advantage gained when ineligible student-athletes compete), rather than penalizing a future team, coach or student-athletes who were not participating at the time the violations occurred.
The panel therefore found that under the current infractions process — as proposed and approved by member schools — the vacation of records penalty is appropriate in this case. The panel, however, acknowledged that the changing college sports landscape naturally requires regular reevaluation of rules, including consequences associated with rules violations and appropriate penalties.
"Changes to historical practice — particularly around what violations trigger student-athlete ineligibility and how ineligible competition is penalized — should be made by more traditional governance committees through the governance and legislative process," the panel said. "The COI is open to reevaluating the violations that trigger ineligibility or how ineligible competition should be penalized, but it would be inappropriate to do so in the context of a single infractions case and outside of the legislative process."
The full list of prescribed penalties for this case include:
- One year of probation.
- A fine of $25,000 (self-imposed by the school).
- A two-week ban on all football recruiting communication during the 2026 calendar year (self-imposed by the school).
- A 24-day reduction in recruiting person days, including two weeks during which Ferentz was prohibited from off-campus recruiting activity in 2025, as well as four days during which Budmayr was prohibited from recruiting during the 2025 spring evaluation period (self-imposed by the school).
- A vacation of all records in which the student-athlete competed while ineligible.
- A one-game suspension for Ferentz and Budmayr during the 2024 football season (self-imposed by the school).
Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from the NCAA membership and public. The panel members who reviewed this case are Jeremy Jordan, dean of the David B. Falk College of Sport at Syracuse; Stephen Madva, attorney in private practice; Vince Nicastro, deputy commissioner and chief operating officer at the Big East Conference; Kay Norton, chair of the Committee on Infractions and president emerita at Northern Colorado; Mary Schutten, executive vice president and provost at Central Michigan; Christian Spears, former athletics director at Marshall; and Steven Waterfield, athletics director at Oakland.
