Threatened lawsuit from Black former players is pivotal moment for Iowa football, experts say, with no easy way out

The University of Iowa may be forced to choose between two bad options as it responds to the threat of a lawsuit claiming Black football players suffered for years in a discriminatory environment enabled by longtime coach Kirk Ferentz.

Eight of Ferentz’s former athletes sent a letter this month demanding $20 million and the firing of the coach; his son, Brian, who is his offensive coordinator; and athletic director Gary Barta. The university rejected those demands.

If the university agrees to a settlement, it would be viewed by the public as an admission of guilt and would likely spur similar lawsuits from former players, said two legal experts who reviewed documents about the potential case at the Des Moines Register’s request. But allowing the matter to go to trial would potentially put Ferentz and his program under a cloud of doubt for months, making it difficult to recruit Black athletes and leading to depositions and cross-examinations of him and his coaching staff that could prove embarrassing.

Either path the university takes must include a further commitment to real change in the way Black athletes are treated, the experts said, or the reputations of Ferentz, Barta and any others involved will be damaged permanently.

The university should be concerned about this and taking very strong efforts to fix it before it gets out of hand and utterly destroys the football program and utterly shames the university and the state of Iowa as being the poster child of racism,” said Thomas Newkirk, a Des Moines-based civil rights attorney who won a $6.5 million gender-discrimination settlement from the University of Iowa in 2017 on behalf of former athletic department employees Jane Meyer and Tracey Griesbaum.