Iowa basketball coach Ben McCollum agrees to 6-year contract with starting pay of $3.35M
Florida was one of the country's elite teams all season and proved it despite not having its best game in the championship against Houston.
Iowa men's basketball coach Ben McCollum agreed to a six-year, $22.75 million contract that runs through the 2030-31 season, according to the memorandum of understanding he signed last month.
The document, obtained Friday through an Associated Press public records request, outlines a pay package that lists McCollum's base salary at $500,000 each year with supplemental pay that increases annually. His formal contract was not available for release, the university said.
McCollum will earn $3.35 million in his first year, with his compensation rising to $4.1 million in the sixth year.
McCollum would be in line for six-figure bonuses if the Hawkeyes reach the NCAA Sweet 16, topped by $400,000 for winning the national championship. A Big Ten regular-season title would earn him $75,000 and a conference tournament championship $50,000. Additional bonuses are tied to his players' academic performance.
He will have a salary pool of about $2.1 million for assistant coaches.
McCollum, whose hiring was announced March 24, led Drake to the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships and a win in the NCAA Tournament in his only season with the Bulldogs.
Athletic director Beth Goetz announced McCollum's hiring 10 days after she fired Fran McCaffery and two days after McCollum wrapped up a 31-4 season with a loss to Texas Tech in the second round of the West Regional.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
22 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Panthers can move to the verge of winning the Stanley Cup again if they beat the Oilers in Game 4
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Leading the Stanley Cup Final 2-1, the Florida Panthers can move to the verge of a second consecutive championship if they beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 4 at home Thursday night. The Panthers were upbeat and relaxed at their final full practice before the potential swing game, with players downplaying the gravity of the situation.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
ICE's go-to charter airline for deportations also flew NCAA teams, Inter Miami and more
Cheers greeted the Memphis men's basketball team as it emerged from an Airbus A320 on the night of March 16. The plane had carried the team from Fort Worth, Texas, to Memphis International Airport, and the flight home was a joyous one. The 16th-ranked Tigers were American Athletic Conference tournament champions and NCAA Tournament-bound. The trophy, topped by a large silver basketball, was buckled into a seat next to head coach Penny Hardaway. Advertisement On the tarmac, cameras flashed. Hardaway gave well-wishers a thumbs-up. Players high-fived fans. Less than 12 hours later, the same Airbus A320 – tail number N281GX – flew from El Paso, Texas, to Tapachula, Mexico. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flight transported 105 men, seven women and one child. Handcuffs, leg irons, and a waist chain likely restrained most adults' wrists and ankles. Guards monitored the cabin. After landing in Tapachula, the sullen passengers filed off the plane, met by Mexican authorities in safety vests. Both flights were operated by Global Crossing Airlines, commonly referred to as GlobalX, a charter company based in Miami. In the last eight months, the company has transported athletic teams from Arkansas, Kentucky, Houston, Kansas, Marquette, Memphis, Miami, North Carolina and St. John's, among others. During March Madness, GlobalX planes carried the Duke men back from the Final Four and the UConn women home after winning the national title. GlobalX also has ferried professional teams, including Inter Miami CF and its star, Lionel Messi. At the same time, GlobalX has operated more than half of ICE deportation flights. The airline regularly shuttles deportees to Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and elsewhere, sometimes on the same planes that only hours or days earlier carried sports teams. The Trump administration's controversial March 15 deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and more than 200 others to El Salvador involved three GlobalX planes. Two of them carried college basketball teams in the weeks prior. 'When you get asked to do an NCAA flight, you feel lighter,' said a former GlobalX pilot who spoke on the condition he not be identified. 'If your team wins, you get the honor of transporting the winning team. It's just a feeling of accomplishment. For me doing an ICE flight, I don't want to be dramatic and say it's like a death sentence, but I hated it.' Advertisement The system of chartered ICE flights – referred to as ICE Air – has operated for more than a decade, spanning presidential administrations, immigration policies and airlines. The flights have long drawn criticism from human rights advocates, raising concerns about mistreatment of detainees, safety and a lack of transparency. Less spotlighted has been the crossover between GlobalX's sports charters and ICE Air, as universities and sports organizations unwittingly support a company deeply involved in and profiting from deportation flights. 'They may not have known, but now they do, so now they have a choice to make,' said Ann Skeet, a senior director at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. 'They need to think about the purpose of their organization and their mission, and whether or not using a charter service that also serves ICE is consistent with their mission.' GlobalX and ICE didn't respond to emailed questions. Only 10 of 20 universities responded to requests for comment from The Athletic about flights their teams took on GlobalX in recent months. The schools willing to speak about the matter said they were unaware that the planes they were on were also used to deport people. Memphis, for one, said in a statement: 'The University of Memphis uses multiple sources to charter athletic flights and have no knowledge of their customer base.' Many schools and coaches declined to address the issue at all; several feared potential retaliation given the Trump administration's targeting of some universities. The first GlobalX revenue flight took off in August 2021. A slogan on the airline's website promised: 'You can't beat the eXperience.' The company soon became a major player in the sports charter business as its fleet expanded to more than a dozen. Past clients include professional basketball and football teams, a national soccer team, a major cricket tournament and an array of college sports teams. 'We do fly some of the biggest stars in professional sports, in soccer and some of the top – I think 10 of the top 20 college basketball teams for this season,' Ryan Goepel, the company's president and chief financial officer, said during an earnings call in March. Advertisement GlobalX provided four dedicated aircraft for the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments this year as part of a contract worth at least $5 million, continuing a years-long relationship with the NCAA. March Madness travel is organized through the NCAA's charter program. Third-party brokers usually arrange travel for college teams during the regular season. In response to questions from The Athletic about GlobalX, the NCAA issued a statement that didn't address them: 'The NCAA contracts only with safe and regulated charter plane vendors that maintain specified certifications, high ratings on reliable scales and meet insurance standards. The approval process for vendors is rigorous. We are not aware of any instances of sub-standard service on any charter flights during this championship season.' A promotional video for sports charters on the GlobalX website earlier this year featured gourmet snacks, a grinning flight crew and spacious seats, complete with pillows, blankets and Fiji bottled water. A company brochure described its charter flights as 'the ultimate in flexibility, convenience, and luxury' and 'your ticket to wherever you want, whenever you want.' 'They were great flights, they are all excited about playing and having fun,' a second former GlobalX pilot said of the sports charters. 'That was one part of GlobalX's business model. The other part was the deportations.' Tom Cartwright, an immigration advocate who tracks ICE flights, first noted ICE's use of GlobalX in late 2021. GlobalX announced a five-year contract in August 2024 worth $65 million per year as a subcontractor to CSI Aviation for the flights. Cartwright estimates that from March through May of this year, GlobalX operated 64 percent of total ICE Air flights and 62 percent of deportation flights. Most adult passengers are required to be 'fully restrained' with 'handcuffs, waist chains, and leg irons,' according to the ICE Air Operations handbook. Carry-on items like books aren't allowed. Detainees can't wear belts, hats or shoelaces. 'They're in conditions that you would see in a POW camp,' said the first former GlobalX pilot. Advertisement An Airbus A320 with the tail number N291GX joined the GlobalX fleet last year, and its usage in recent months illustrates the disparate worlds the airline straddles. That plane carried San Diego State, Maryland, Kentucky and Auburn during the NCAA Tournament. In the two months preceding March Madness, N291GX flew dozens of times with flight numbers and destinations that match ICE Air routes. The plane traveled from Alexandria, La., to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, then onto Comayagua, Honduras. The Honduran foreign minister tweeted a photo of the aircraft. ICE later announced that 177 detained migrants from Venezuela had been flown from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras, where a Venezuelan plane picked them up. En un trabajo conjunto, por instrucciones de la Presidenta @XiomaraCastroZ en cooperación con los y la República Bolivariana Venezuela con quienes Honduras tiene relaciones diplomáticas, con la labor de @Sedenahn @riximga @CancilleriaHN se realizan Acciones Humanitarias… — Enrique Reina (@EnriqueReinaHN) February 20, 2025 Another trip deported 157 migrants from El Paso, Texas, to Tapachula, Mexico. Local media reported that passengers had been 'handcuffed and shackled from the waist to the feet and hands.' The plane flew from El Paso to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, using a flight number associated with ICE Air. The airport is a regular destination for deportation flights. The next day, March 17, the same plane carried the San Diego State men's basketball team to Dayton, Ohio, and on March 19, it flew the Maryland men to Seattle. The plane traveled to San Salvador, El Salvador on another trip using a flight number associated with ICE Air, then, a week later, on April 2, ferried the Auburn men's basketball team to San Antonio International Airport for the Final Four, where a mariachi group and dancers in bright dresses greeted them in a hangar. Another GlobalX plane – tail number N278GX – landed in San Salvador on Jan. 29, according to flight records and local media reports. More than 80 deportees were aboard. A reporter for El Diario de Hoy photographed the red wrists of one of the passengers and wrote they 'show signs of having been handcuffed for hours.' Two days later, the Kansas State men's basketball team flew from Manhattan, Kan., to Des Moines, Iowa, aboard the same plane in advance of a game against Iowa State in Ames, Iowa. (In a statement, Kansas State said it has been 'pleased' with GlobalX's 'aircraft and service.') Advertisement Also on Jan. 29, a different GlobalX plane with the tail number N837VA ferried 40 deportees to San Pedro Sula. 'They brought me in chains from last night until we arrived here. We're not criminals,' one of the passengers, Dagoberto Portillo, told local media. 'I don't understand the treatment of migrants.' Three days later, the Nebraska men's basketball team traveled aboard the same plane from Lincoln, Neb., to Eugene, Ore. The university said in a statement that the school wasn't 'involved in how that plane was received or procured.' Another GlobalX plane with the tail number N276GX landed at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, on Jan. 24 with 88 Brazilian deportees. Someone activated the aircraft's emergency exit slides. Photos and videos recorded a chaotic scene where shackled passengers stood on a wing and others roamed the tarmac. Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs derided 'the use of handcuffs and chains' and 'undignified treatment' on the flight. 'The most difficult moment was when the air conditioning broke down in the air, people started to feel sick, some fainted and children were crying,' Kaleb Barbosa, one of the passengers, told the Brazilian media outlet G1. 'The turbines were stopping during the flight; it was desperate, like something out of a movie.' The same plane carried the men's basketball teams from Arkansas and Houston in the previous two months, amid a stream of deportation trips. Those didn't stop. Neither did the sports flights. On May 13, the plane transported the Miami track and field team to the Atlantic Coast Conference outdoor championships in Winston-Salem, N.C. Miami's men's and women's basketball teams and baseball team also have flown GlobalX this year. The university didn't respond to a request for comment. A higher-profile Miami team is featured on GlobalX's Instagram account. The airline shuttled Messi and the rest of Inter Miami CF to preseason matches in Peru and Honduras this year in addition to a match in Kansas City. Inter Miami also didn't respond to a request for comment. Advertisement When Inter Miami arrived at Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport in San Pedro Sula on Feb. 8, fire trucks shot arcs of water over the plane with the tail number N281GX. Photographers snapped pictures of players, including Messi, walking down the passenger stairs. Contrast that with a flight that same plane made into San Pedro Sula on Dec. 4. Deportees, some of them with children, were photographed as they walked the tarmac. Behind them was the plane they traveled on, 'GlobalX' written in giant blue letters across its fuselage. 'On the one hand, you have the low-end flights for people, which are basically shackled in the sky,' said Angelina Godoy, director of the University of Washington's Center for Human Rights and author of a 2022 study about ICE Air, 'and then you have the other end, the very high-end flights, with these corporate logos and everything on the plane and the athletes in there looking great … and it's the same damn (plane).' (Graphics: Drew Jordan / The Athletic) (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Sarah Stier, Orlando Sierra / Getty Images, Moises Castillo, Larry MacDougal / AP Photo)
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Panthers can move to the verge of winning the Stanley Cup again if they beat the Oilers in Game 4
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Leading the Stanley Cup Final 2-1, the Florida Panthers can move to the verge of a second consecutive championship if they beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 4 at home Thursday night. The Panthers were upbeat and relaxed at their final full practice before the potential swing game, with players downplaying the gravity of the situation. 'I feel like every game's so big during this time,' center Anton Lundell said Wednesday. 'The stakes gets higher. Everybody wants to win. But we both know for both teams it's a big game, and we want to be good.' They were more than good in Game 3, routing the Oilers 6-1 to take control of a series that looked evenly matched after a bunch of overtime hockey and a split in Edmonton. 'Usually you get teams' best after that, I think especially with the players they have in the room, how competitive they are, they're going to look to bounce back,' said Brad Marchand, who is tied with teammate Sam Bennett for the most goals in the final with four apiece. 'When you have that kind of leadership, they normally lead the way, those top guys. That's a dangerous combination. We have to make sure that we bring our best.' The Panthers are nearing full strength at a time of year usually known for players gutting through injuries, with Paul Maurice saying Sam Reinhart is back healthy and Matthew Tkachuk looks like he is rounding into form. The Oilers are missing Zach Hyman because of his playoff-ending wrist injury, and fellow top-line forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is dealing with something that is keeping him off the ice for practices and making him a game-time decision. That discrepancy could make a difference in their Cup final rematch. One thing that is the same is Florida locking in and normalizing pressure situations like this. 'Our approach, it's pretty similar the entire playoffs,' said Bennett, who leads all scorers this postseason with 14 goals. 'Whether it's Game 1 or Game 7, we play the same style. We play just as hard. We're not sitting back, so we really are not going to be changing anything in this next game or any other games to come.' ___ AP NHL playoffs: and
