{"id":867889,"date":"2026-04-16T19:31:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/867889\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T19:31:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:31:39","slug":"a-former-hawkeye-went-in-on-the-ncaa-after-a-brutal-ruling-against-iowa-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/867889\/","title":{"rendered":"A former Hawkeye went in on the NCAA after a brutal ruling against Iowa Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5j\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dearoldgold.com\/kirk-ferentz-s-big-recruiting-blunder-has-come-back-to-bite-iowa-football-once-again-01kp4wxs63jk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The NCAA ruling against the Iowa Football program<\/a> still has multiple parties up in arms over the decision.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5m\">After it was determined that Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa program violated recruiting restrictions related to <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/iowa-football-suffers-major-setback-181341075.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">contact with then-Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara<\/a>, the University thought it was in the clear.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5p\">The program self-imposed mutiple penalties, including suspending Ferentz and coach Jon Budmayr, for a game, a $25,000 fine, and recruiting restrictions, but apparently that wasn&#8217;t enough.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5s\">The NCAA passed final judgment in the case after four years, forcing Iowa to vacate four wins from the 2023 season when McNamara would&#8217;ve been ineligible. The punishment hasn&#8217;t gone over well with anyone surrounding the program, including a former player.<\/p>\n<p>Deontae Craig heavily criticized the NCAA decision, siting Michigan&#8217;s sign-stealing scandal<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5y\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/davideickholt\/status\/2044105648560824683?s=46&amp;t=yVuOlzA3N3R8FHp2lQt-Ew\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Kirk Ferentz released a statement shortly<\/a> after the ruling was handed down, calling it &#8220;overly harsh and inconsistent&#8221; with the infraction.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"61\">He wasn&#8217;t the only one who expressed extreme disappointment with the decision.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So a recruiting violation vacates 4 of our wins but a program literally planted someone on opposing sidelines to steal signs\/ and plays and their coach gets a 4 game suspension? NCAA is a joke\ud83d\ude02<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Deontae Craig (@CraigDeontae) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CraigDeontae\/status\/2044126798934388863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"67\">Former <a href=\"https:\/\/hawkeyesports.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/player\/deontae-craig\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Iowa defensive lineman Deontae Craig<\/a>, who was a member of the team when the violations occurred, went in on the NCAA after the ruling, calling them a &#8220;joke.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6a\">He blasted the NCAA on social media, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/45986773\/sources-michigan-gets-major-fine-add-moore-ban-sign-stealing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">noting that the Michigan football program <\/a>was caught planting scouts to steal signs and plays from opponents and received a lighter penalty than Kirk Ferentz and Iowa.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6d\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/45986773\/sources-michigan-gets-major-fine-add-moore-ban-sign-stealing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Michigan Head coach Jim Harbaugh and assistant Sherrone Moore<\/a> were given multiple-game suspensions, and the program was hit a hefty fine, but that&#8217;s it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">Craig&#8217;s sentiments have been echoed by multiple people, and he has a valid point about how the punishment does not fit the crime.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">This case could lead to harsher penalties in the future for recruiting violations, but currently, it only further proves that the NCAA is at best wishy-washy when it comes to punishments for any kind of violation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow dearoldgold.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=dearoldgold.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NCAA ruling against the Iowa Football program still has multiple parties up in arms over the decision.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-867889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116416055788879677","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}