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NCAA slaps Iowa with vacated wins over recruitment of ex-Michigan QB
TL;DR
The NCAA has ordered the University of Iowa to vacate four wins from the 2023 season due to recruitment violations involving former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara. Iowa assistant Jon Budmayr had multiple communications with McNamara and his father during the recruitment process, leading to the sanctions.
The University of Iowa has been forced to vacate four wins from the 2023 season for tampering and recruitment violations, the NCAA announced in a ruling Tuesday.
The player in question is believed to be former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara, who transferred to Iowa from Michigan for the 2023 season. The NCAA didn't name the player, but said Iowa must vacate the four wins during which the player competed. McNamara played in five games for Iowa in 2024, four of them wins. It has been widely reported the player in question was McNamara.
The NCAA said Tuesday that Iowa assistant Jon Budmayr had 13 phone calls with the student-athlete and/or his father in November 2022, when McNamara was sidelined with a right knee injury after being replaced by J.J. McCarthy as Michigan's starting quarterback.
On Dec. 1, McNamara, a captain, transferred to Iowa, less than a week after Michigan's regular season ended.
Quarterback Cade McNamara transferred from Michigan to Iowa after the 2022 season.
Budmayr and longtime Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, a Royal Oak native, previously served a one-game suspension, during the 2024 season, as part of a leadup to Tuesday's full list of penalties.
Budmayr remains on Iowa's staff as a wide receivers coach. He was an offensive analyst for Iowa in 2022, before he was promoted to senior assistant to the head coach in 2023.
“I believe today’s decision by the NCAA vacating four wins in our 2023 season is overly harsh and inconsistent with the violation," Ferentz, 70, Iowa's head coach since 1999, said in a statement released Tuesday. "As I tell our team and staff, it is how you respond and move forward that defines you. Our focus is on the 2026 season and that is how we are moving forward.”
McNamara, 25, played the first five games of the season for the Hawkeyes in 2023, before leaving early in the Sept. 30 home win against Michigan State with a knee injury that eventually proved to be season-ending.
(The NCAA doesn't award vacated wins to the opposing teams, but if it did, Michigan State wouldn't even be able to accept one for its 26-16 loss at Iowa, because Michigan State's wins from that season, and two other seasons, also were vacated by the NCAA.)
Also vacated by Iowa from that 2023 season was a 41-10 home win over Western Michigan.
McNamara played in eight games in 2024 (five wins), before he transferred to East Tennessee State ahead of the 2025 season. Last season at East Tennessee State, a Football Championship Subdivision program, he played in eight games in his final season of college eligibility.
For his college career, McNamara threw for 5,986 yards, 38 touchdowns and 21 interceptions.
Other penalties handed down by Iowa to the NCAA include:
- One year of probation.
- A $25,000 fine for the school.
- A two-week recruiting ban in 2026.
- A 24-day reduction in recruiting person days.
Quarterback Cade McNamara played parts of two seasons with Iowa.
The NCAA Committee on Infractions did say that the penalties handed down in terms of vacated records should be reevaluated in the future, given the changing landscape of college athletics (transfer portal, NIL). But for now, under the letter of the law, the NCAA said the vacated records are appropriate.
Ferentz, the longest-tenured football coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and Budmayr acknowledged mistakes in their discussions with the NCAA.
The NCAA Committee on Infractions said the "lapse in judgment in this case did not call into question Ferentz's integrity or decades of running a compliant football program and appreciated his cooperation and contrition."
Iowa was 10-4 with 2023, losing to eventual national champion Michigan, 26-0, in the Big Ten title game.
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Cade McNamara's transfer from Michigan to Iowa leads to vacated wins
Q&A
Why did the NCAA vacate Iowa's wins from the 2023 season?
The NCAA vacated Iowa's wins due to recruitment violations involving former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara.
How many wins did Iowa have to vacate and in which season?
Iowa had to vacate four wins from the 2023 season.
What role did Iowa assistant Jon Budmayr play in the NCAA's ruling?
Iowa assistant Jon Budmayr was found to have made 13 phone calls to Cade McNamara and his father, which contributed to the NCAA's ruling on recruitment violations.
Who is Cade McNamara and what is his connection to this ruling?
Cade McNamara is a former Michigan quarterback who transferred to Iowa and is believed to be the player involved in the NCAA's ruling against Iowa for recruitment violations.