IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa athletics director Gary Barta will retire effective Aug. 1, the school announced Friday.
Barta, 59, ranks fifth in tenure among Power 5 athletics directors and has led Iowa’s athletic department since 2006. He also served as College Football Playoff chairman in 2020 and 2021. Barta and Kirk Ferentz are the nation’s longest-serving athletics director-football coach combination at one school.
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“It has been an absolute privilege and honor to serve in this role the past 17 years I’m humbled to have worked beside, and on behalf of, so many student-athletes, coaches, staff, donors, fans, and community leaders over the past two decades,” Barta said in a statement. “The success enjoyed by our student-athletes and coaches during my entire tenure, and especially the past several years, has been impressive and record breaking on so many levels.”
After 17 years at Iowa, Henry B. and Patricia B. Tippie Director of Athletics Chair Gary Barta announces his retirement. #Hawkeyes
— The Iowa Hawkeyes (@TheIowaHawkeyes) May 26, 2023
Iowa has enjoyed unprecedented longevity at athletics director. College Football Hall of Fame inductee Bump Elliott worked at Iowa from 1970 to 1991 and was succeeded by Bob Bowlsby in 1991. Bowlsby, who retired last year as Big 12 commissioner, worked at Iowa until 2006.
Iowa will name an interim athletics director next week, likely to be deputy athletics director Beth Goetz.
Barta’s impact
Iowa has won four NCAA championships (all in wrestling), earned 27 Big Ten team titles and produced nearly 500 All-America honorees under Barta. Iowa’s student-athlete average GPA has exceeded 3.0 eight years in a row with an 89 percent graduation success rate.
Over Barta’s tenure, Iowa has completed more than $380 million in facility upgrades and new construction projects and raised more than $650 million in private support for athletics scholarships, operations, facilities and endowments.
Barta and his athletics department have settled lawsuits related to gender discrimination, racial discrimination and Title IX for $11 million over the last six years.
Likely replacement
Goetz, 48, came to Iowa in September after serving as Ball State’s athletics director since 2018. A St. Louis-area native, Goetz played soccer at Clemson, coached soccer at Missouri-St. Louis and was interim athletics director at Minnesota in 2015. Although Iowa likely will open up its job search, Goetz is the favorite to replace Barta.
(Photo: George Gojkovich / Getty Images)
