Voice of the Hawkeyes Board

Slow day in sports I guess. Nepotism goes on at every college. Look at the Oklahoma Sooners (Stoops). Brother hires brother. Didn't Steve Alford hire his dad on as a coach? How about in wrestling. The Brands brothers coaching together. Nepotism goes on at every level. I go to DePaul university and the AD and the girls softball coach are related (cousins I believe). Just seems like there isn't much to report on right now in CFB.

You are right U2, if rules were broken then I see a problem, but I think this is a non issue here

I don't know what the protocol is for this situation. The fiancé isn't family yet, so it may not be the same as when Kirk hired his son.

Does anyone know the rules and/or protocol for this type of hiring or what Kirk may have overlooked in the rule book?

i think it is certain that rules were broken--at some point. the violation might prove inconsequential--tho real. barnes' appointment in the fb program became a must report conflict of interest at whatever point in time he developed a special relationship with kf's daughter. if he came in as her boyfriend, it needed to be reported then. if the relationship came up after his hiring, it needed to be reported later--at least at the point of engagement. it wasn't reported. rules were broken. issue sanctions. next man in.

kf says he didn't see any reason to disclose the special relationship. oh, maybe, but that's pretty naive. i imagine he just thought it was nobody's business. that used to be an acceptable view, but not any longer. it appears kf doesn't keep up on administrative standards any more than he keeps up on offensive strategies. still he should've known better. it isn't like they gave him a pass when hiring his son. at least the ui waved its administrative hands around on that one. i feel sorry for young barnes. i wouldn't expect him to know the rules.

Seems like a non-story turned into a story, which is business as usual these days.

What they should be writing a story about is how I didn't get hired when I applied for the OC position, even sent in my game film from the 360, bunch a crap really, considering I am the best head coach in the business and trying to move to OC. But whatever

well, actully you can't report it after the wedding and still comply. as i said back a ways, you can't report a relationship that doesn't exist--so if none existed when barnes was hired, no report was required--at that point. the engagement sure constituted a special relationship and needed to be reported. now, you can agree with kf that this is all stupid and should be left alone. the athletic dept cant pick/choose the rules it will follow based on the coach's sense of what is worth paying attention to. that is, of course, the point. heck, the hire would have held up even after reporting the engagement. coach was just too stubborn to see the easy way thru this. and that's the second point. stubbornness and willful blindness don't solve problems--or gain enuf first downs.

I am going to guess if they got engaged six months after he was hired, he was probably dating her when he was hired. But it appears UI expected that he should have reported the relationship, at least when they got engaged. But who knows.

A lot of relationships take at least a year before they get engaged, but sometimes it happens much quicker. It's also possible that Barnes was just friends with Ferentz's daughter at the time he joined Iowa's staff, and then something developed later. I really don't know either way.

I agree with the issue being what you described. Unfortunately, the initial articles about this story make that very difficult to decipher.