Iowa Reconsiders Team Travel, Nonconference Scheduling Ahead of Revenue Sharing

The University of Iowa athletic department is reconsidering its methods of team travel and nonconference scheduling, among other spending areas, as it prepare for direct revenue sharing with athletes in 2025-26.

“We want to be fiscally responsible in every way, and we want to develop a sustainable budget model,” deputy athletics director Joe Parker said on Tuesday during the university’s monthly Presidential Committee on Athletics meeting, as reported by The Gazette of Cedar Rapids.

Iowa is looking to free up about $20.5 million — the anticipated cap in 2025-26 for revenue sharing as part of the House v. NCAA settlement.

Team travel was a $13.4 million expense in 2023-24, before the UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington joined the Big Ten Conference, according to Iowa’s most recent NCAA financial filing. The only higher expense categories involved staff compensation, athletic student aid or debt service, The Gazette reported.

“We’ll take a look at how all of our teams travel,” athletics director Beth Goetz told The Gazette after the meeting. “Certainly there’s some sort of standard for how some of our revenue sports move around, and that’ll continue. But I think we’re just going to try to be as resourceful as we can, and some of that has to do with how you schedule for other sports.”

Parker said Iowa officials have asked coaches to “think really long and hard about their non-conference scheduling and see if they can get it more regionalized.”

“Every time we put a team on the road, the most efficient way to do it is by bus,” Parker said at the PCA meeting. “Next is commercial aircraft. And then there’s some teams that we just have to simply choose to charter. … There’s big cost-saving opportunities there if we can apply that level of discipline.”

Another cost-saving consideration is apparel spending and “trying to keep all our teams within the allocation” that they receive through Iowa’s contract with Nike, said Parker, adding that there have been " about six full-time positions that we haven’t refilled and we don’t plan to," as well.

Meanwhile, additional revenue might come in the form of opening up Kinnick Stadium and Carver-Hawkeye Arena to more concerts and other events, The Gazette reported.