U of I buys up Web site names to try to avoid criticism of coaches

[companyone]

Firekirkferentz.com?

Notonyour.life.

The University of Iowa last fall purchased rights to seven Web sites that school officials hope will head off or curtail negative Internet chatter regarding prominent athletic department employees — Ferentz, the football coach; basketball coaches Steve Alford and Lisa Bluder, and athletic director Gary Barta.

“It’s a pretty good insurance policy,” Rick Klatt, associate athletics director of external affairs for the school, said today, two days before Ferentz holds his first spring football news conference.

Klatt said Iowa paid a one-time initial fee of $674.82 for the rights to the seven Internet domains. The yearly fee is $25 per site.

“We’re simply attempting to protect an institutional staff member from today’s environment,” Klatt said.

A domain the university could not purchase was firestevealford.com, which is owned anonymously.

“It’s kind of a sad commentary that we needed to do this,” Klatt said, “but it struck me last fall that this was probably the prudent thing to do on behalf of our staff, so I went ahead and purchased a handful of sites.”

Derogatory Web sites have become vehicles for fans to voice their frustration with prominent coaches in recent years. Among the most notable are FireRonZook.com (former Florida football coach) and FireDennisFranchione.com (Texas A&M football coach).

Klatt said he knows of no other school that has purchased potentially defaming Internet domains. That includes Iowa State.

“We haven’t even discussed such a measure,” Cyclones senior associate athletics director Steve Malchow said. “If someone really wanted to do something like this, I presume they could come up with other domain names.”

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*my bad....I thought it said: 674,000.82...almost fell out of my chair...lol

 

[Keynes]

They're paying a renewal of $25/year...that's hilarious.

 

[BobDiGiTaL]

Some people know of no other registrars than Network Solutions.