By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Fran McCaffery has made it abundantly clear that he has no intention of resigning or retiring from his job of 15 years as the Iowa men’s basketball coach.

If Iowa wants to make a change, it’ll have to make it because Fran McCaffery is going nowhere if it’s up to him.

Even with his team in serious danger of not making the Big Ten Tournament, which only takes the top 15 teams in the conference, Fran McCaffery isn’t budging.

Iowa (15-15, 6-13) would fail to make the Big Ten Tournament if it were to lose the regular-season finale at Nebraska on Sunday, and that would only fuel the anti-Fran McCaffery sentiment.

Legendary Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo did his best to help Fran McCaffery following Michigan State’s 91-84 come-from-behind victory over Iowa on Thursday in Iowa City.

The way in which Izzo described the game, the Spartans were out-played, out-coached and out-hustled for 75 percent of the game, but then ultimately were fortunate to have worn out the depleted Hawkeyes.

Izzo eventually got around to praising his team for its perseverance, and for winning the Big Ten regular season title outright with Thursday’s win.

But Izzo clearly had a purpose when he sat down with reporters.

He wanted to support his coaching colleague and friend, and to have Tom Izzo in your corner should certainly mean something.

Of course, the anti-Fran McCaffery contingent would point out that Izzo also voiced support for former Iowa head coach Todd Lickliter in a post-game press conference, so what was said about Fran McCaffery after Thursday’s game was just more of Izzo’s coach speak.

Maybe so, but to compare what Todd Lickliter did in three straight losing seasons as the Iowa men’s basketball to what Fran McCaffery has accomplished in 15 seasons is just silly, and unfair to Fran McCaffery.

I’ve stated before that I believe Fran McCaffery still deserves another season to right the ship based on his body of work, which includes 11 upper division finishes in the Big Ten, seven NCAA Tournament appearances and a Big Ten Tournament championship in 2022.

His players also have excelled as citizens, and as representatives of the University of Iowa.

It’s hard to think of the last time an Iowa player under Fran McCaffery had a scrape with the law, and that should matter when evaluating Fran McCaffery.

Injuries have also been a factor in Iowa’s struggles this season, most notably Owen Freeman’s season-ending finger injury, which happened over a month ago. The 6-foot-10 Freeman was leading Iowa in scoring and rebounding when he was lost for the season in early February.

McCaffery’s critics, and those hoping for a coaching change, would counter those arguments by pointing out that Iowa hasn’t advanced past the round of the 32 under Fran McCaffery, and that Carver-Hawkeye Arena is often more than half empty for home games.

Those are both valid points and reason for concern.

But no matter who the Iowa head coach is next season, there will almost certainly be one glaring weakness that won’t get fixed with a coaching change.

A new head coach might help to attract more fans because that’s what usually happens with a coaching change.

But it’s hard to envision a new head coach being able to immediately raise more NIL money.

It seems more likely that a new head coach, perhaps somebody such as Parkersburg, Iowa native Darian DeVries, would demand that Iowa figure a way to generate more NIL money before accepting the job.

“They don’t have the resources here,” Izzo said of Iowa after Thursday’s game. “I’m going to say what I think. This ain’t what Fran thinks. Everybody has different amounts of resources. They’re not in the middle or the high end.”

Though it’s hard to know precisely how much Iowa men’s basketball produces in NIL money on an annual basis, it believed to be between $1 million and $1.5 million.

That seems okay until you realize that multiple Big Ten teams reportedly have payrolls in excess of $5 million annually.

In CBS Sports’ “Candid Coaches” series, Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander conducted  a survey in which they asked more than 100 college basketball coaches who they think have the best name, image and likeness programs in place.

Coaches were asked to name which three programs they believe have the best NIL situations based on what they are hearing on the recruiting trail.

Iowa basketball didn’t receive a single vote.

That is obviously a huge problem that wouldn’t be fixed just because of a coaching change.

The drop in attendance, on the other hand, would be an easier fix with a coaching change, even more so  if Iowa were to have immediate success.

Fran McCaffery’s problem is that he is in year 15 and on the verge of not making the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season.

Fran Fatigue has set in for some and there just hasn’t been enough winning to offset it.

Oddly enough, Fran McCaffery has, at least on paper, one of his best recruiting classes coming in 2025 with two four-star prospects in the class.

Imagine what he could do with more NIL resources?

There have been multiple cases in recruiting in which Iowa has checked all the boxes for some big-time prospects, except one big one – NIL resources. The choice often is a business decision that ultimately comes down to money rather than a decision about what is the best college to attend.

And while it’s easy to say that Iowa has to raise more NIL money for men’s basketball, this isn’t an easy environment in which to raise money.

Iowa has plans to renovate Carver-Hawkeye Arena, which is long overdue, but that’ll cost millions of dollars, as would hiring a new head coach.

Darian DeVries, for example, signed a five-year deal with West Virginia that pays him an average of $3 million per year. His buyout is not a set number, but rather that West Virginia would be owed 37.5 percent of the remaining contract amount, which would be approximately $5 million, while Fran McCaffery’s buyout is about $4.2 million.

DeVries would likely demand at least a six-year deal worth at least $3.5 or $4 million annually since Fran McCaffery currently makes $3.2 annually.

Add all those numbers up and it would probably cost nearly $35 million to hire Darian DeVries away from West Virginia.

It seems that many Iowa fans are assuming, or hoping, that Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz will reach a separation agreement with Fran McCaffery shortly after the season.

Goetz, not surprisingly, has been silent about Fran McCaffery’s situation, whereas Fran McCaffery has spoken loud and clear about where he stands.

Goetz would have to get rid of him because Fran McCaffery has no intention of leaving without being forced out.

Tom Davis worked as a lame-duck head coach in the 1998-99 season, and that Iowa team would go on to rally behind his cause by advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.

Iowa hasn’t been back to the Sweet 16 since then, much to the dismay of fans who now hold Fran McCaffery largely responsible since more than half of the drought has been under his watch.

The way in which Tom Davis was forced to resign was a public relations disaster for Iowa.

Fans shouldn’t worry about a repeat of that disaster because it seems highly unlikely under any circumstance that would Fran McCaffery would accept being a lame-duck head coach.

No matter what Goetz and Iowa ultimately decide to do with Fran McCaffery, Iowa had better make the right decision because a wrong decision could be devastating, and could send the program spiraling in the wrong direction.

Iowa’s approach and success with raising NIL money will ultimately be determined by how important men’s basketball is to the athletic program.

It will never be more important football.

But that’s still no excuse for men’s basketball to rank so low in NIL fundraising.