McCollum Stays at Iowa Through 2026-27
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- Ben McCollum confirmed at a Friday pregame news conference in Houston that he will return as Iowa's head coach in 2026-27, answering "yes" when asked directly and calling the job-talk rumors "lies."
- McCollum has Iowa in the Elite Eight for the first time in 39 years, one win from the program's first Final Four appearance since 1980.
- McCollum is at his third school in three seasons — Northwest Missouri State (Division II), Drake, then Iowa — having left Drake for the Hawkeyes after last year's first-round NCAA tournament upset of Missouri.
- Bennett Stirtz, Iowa's star guard, is a McCollum holdover from both Northwest Missouri State and Drake, fueling the Hawkeyes' Cinderella run.
- McCollum said he admires Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz's 27-year tenure and called himself a "Kirk guy," while deflecting comparisons to Indiana football's Curt Cignetti, who rose from outside the Power 4 to win a national title.
- The rejection comes against a turbulent coaching carousel: North Carolina fired Hubert Davis this week, Kansas' Bill Self has batted down retirement talk, and Houston's Kelvin Sampson said he "won't stand in anybody's way" after his team's Sweet 16 loss to Illinois.
Why it matters: With North Carolina, Kansas, and other high-major jobs in flux, locking in McCollum — who has already led two different programs to NCAA tournament upsets in consecutive years — gives Iowa a rare recruiting and continuity edge at a moment when elite Group of Five and mid-major coaches are being aggressively courted by power-conference giants. For a program that hadn't reached the Elite Eight in 39 years, his return is the foundation of any sustained rebuild.
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