Looking at representation of Iowa football player, retention since ’09

CITY OF IOWA, Iowa – More than 50 players alleging racial inequality and abuse within Iowa’s soccer program earlier this month opened the door to examine it. The university hired a Kansas City law firm to conduct an external review of the charges.

The athletic department began addressing the problem two years ago. A diversity task force was formed to study the disparity in graduation rates between black and white student athletes. His report released in early 2019 pointed to problems beyond that.

“The key theme in that report indicated that many of our African American student athletes were not comfortable being themselves,” revealed sports director Gary Barta during a press conference on June 15.

Questions for the report were answered anonymously. There were no specific staff members named in the allegations.

However, there were troubling statements such as: “I felt I had to put on a mask and verify my identity at the door. My coach told me to change my hairstyle because it didn’t fit Iowa culture. “A student-athlete said a staff member cursed and yelled, degrading an African-American student-athlete in front of his peers,” Barta said.

The task force study covered the entire athletics department.

“While neither teams nor individuals were selected in the report, many of these comments were verbally reported to come from soccer,” Barta said.

Iowa has parted ways with football strength coach Chris Doyle, whom the former players most frequently named in the indictments earlier this month. Barta believed that Doyle needed to go to the program to advance.

Head coach Kirk Ferentz, who is set to start his 22nd season running the show, agreed with Barta on Doyle’s departure and promised to make the necessary changes. His current players have supported him to do so.

Time will tell if the dean of college football coaches can save his legacy. The report the university hired the law firm to produce could provide more information on the nature and depth of cultural issues within the program.

A study by the USC Career and Equity Center shows that among the 65 Power 5 soccer programs, Iowa ranked 60th in graduating black student-athletes. In the Big Ten, her 37 percent differential between black-and-white graduate student-athletes ranked highest in the conference. The study analyzed the years 2014-18.

Those numbers penalize schools for transfers. Iowa does not retain black players at a high rate.

That is the basis of our research in some areas of the soccer program that show racial inequality in the representation of players. There are nuances in all the data. Each player has her own story.

The investigation dates back to ’09. Obtaining data before that for all categories is difficult because you can’t get into the Iowa Sports Information office and flip through the old media guides because it’s closed due to COVID-19. And studying the past 11 years offers a sample size of more than 50 percent of Ferentz’s tenure and the latest trends in his program.

Let’s start first with the general representation of the team. To do this, we look at how many black scholarship student-athletes are on the list. It is the easiest way to better estimate representation.

The rosters are made up of approximately 110 or players. Includes walk-ons, most of which are white and status. Tuition for student-athletes walking from outside the borders can be steep.

As such, the majority of student athletes on the list in any given season beyond black fellows end up being white. There are a handful of boys from other races. So if there are 30 black student athletes, you’re looking for around 80 who are white.

Here is a graph showing how many black student athletes who were on soccer scholarships for each of the years beginning in ’09.

As you can see, just once in the last 11 years the official Iowa list contained fewer than 30 black student athletes with scholarships. There were 28 in ’18. The average for the 11 years was 33.5.

The graphic gives us an idea of ​​makeup in the dressing room annually. This can be considered when looking at the student-athlete representation voted by student athletes.

It is also important to consider transfer fees when it comes to representing student athletes. The team captains and student athletes brought to Chicago for the Big Ten Media Days are seniors and often seniors.

Here is a look at transfer rates for the past 11 years for student athletes of race and white / other races in the Iowa program.

During that time, 127 black student athletes signed scholarships with Iowa and arrived on campus. Forty of them finished their college careers here, including those who left the NFL early. Twenty-eight of them remained on the show for this upcoming season.

One hundred fourteen white students / athletes / other race signed scholarships with Iowa and arrived on campus during the years 19-19. Forty-seven of them completed their careers here and 28 remained on the program for ’20.

Digging deeper into those numbers, 18 whites / other races that didn’t finish in Iowa either left as graduate transfers or walked away from the soccer game. Nine blacks who left early were transferred graduates, or abandoned soccer.

Of the 127 blacks who came to Iowa on a scholarship, 68 ended up here or were on the current list. That means 46.5 percent of them did not finish their careers here. For the Whites, 34.2 did not end their careers with the Hawkeyes.

Looking at the years ’13 -15 that included fifth year students from last year, 31 blacks signed scholarship offers with Iowa and eight finished their careers here, accounting for 25.8 percent. Of the 31 White / Other Races that signed during that time, 19 completed their careers, representing 61.3 percent.

Again, there are nuances in these numbers and each player has a different story about why he stayed in Iowa or left. They come from different parts of the country, communities and origins.

LEADERSHIP GROUP

Considering the makeup on the list, let’s take a look at the Iowa Leadership Group. An Iowa press release describes this collection of student athletes as being in charge of “Help formulate policy and participate in team decision-making throughout the year. Players are selected by a team vote.”

Here is a chart looking at the composition of the Iowa Football Leadership Group from ’09 to 19.

During those 11 years, 119 players in the groups were White / Other Races and 44 were Black. In ’08, 10 student athletes in the group were white / other race and three were black. So, from ’08 to ’19, 26.7 percent of the players in the leadership groups were black.

Over the past four seasons, blacks represented 14 of 64 student athletes in the leadership group. They held 21.9 percent of representation on that committee, including just two of the 18 seats in ’17.

After allegations of racial inequities emerged in early June, Iowa players voted in the ’20 leadership group. Twelve of the 21 selected players were Black, the first time since ’09 that they comprised more than 37.5 percent of the group.

PERMANENT TEAM CAPTAINS

At the end of each season, Iowa appoints permanent team captains. These student athletes are chosen by their peers, according to the athletics department.

Here is a chart showing the racial breakdown of the captaincies since 1999, when Ferentz took over the Hayden Fry program. Those names were available in the ’19 Iowa Media Guide.

Of the 103 permanent Iowa captains from ’19 -19, 26 were black. That represented 25.2 percent of the captaincy in 21 years. Only twice (’02 -03) were there more black than white captains. There were more than one black captain five times and only two of those seasons were in the last 16.

Quarterbacks often served as captains. Brad Banks, the only regular black starting pitcher from ’99 to ’19, was named captain in ’02. Randy Reiners, Kyle McCann, Ricky Stanzi (twice), James Vandenberg (twice), CJ Beathard (twice), and Nate Stanley (twice) were white signal callers called captains, representing a total of 10 of the 77 white captainships.

STUDENT-ATHLETES IN THE TEN LARGE COMMUNICATION MEDIA

Every summer, Ferentz selects student-athletes with input from his coaching staff to represent the program at the Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. Each conference school brings its head coach and selected student-athletes.

Here is a chart that looks at the numbers for each show during its time in the league from ’09 to 19. The representation of Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers is shown after joining the conference.

Ferentz chose 10 black student athletes in 11 years out of the 33 players he brought to Chicago, the fewest at the conference during that time. Twice Iowa only brought in white players. No other league show did that once.

For the period, Ferentz selected the representation of black student athletes in Chicago at a rate of 30.3 percent. 48.5 percent of Indiana and the state of Michigan accounted for the next lowest percentage of black student athletes after Iowa among Big Ten schools.

The other programs in the Big Ten West Division – Northwest (57.6), Wisconsin (57.6), Minnesota (66.7), Purdue (63.6), Illinois (66.7), and Nebraska (51.9) – all brought in a significantly higher percentage of black students- athletes to Chicago than the Hawkeyes.

All but three of Iowa’s 33 student athletes were not older adults. Five times a white quarterback represented the Hawkeyes, including Stanley twice.