Gifts Of Private Plane Time Favor Men's College Sports

Wealthy Iowans donated use of their private planes to fly University of Iowa and Iowa State University coaches to recruiting visits, news conferences and meetings nearly 70 times in a two-year period from Aug. 1, 2016, to July 30, 2018. Charter flights can take coaches across state lines or across the country exactly when they need to fly, allowing them to see potential recruits play and still make it back to their own teams’ practices. But the largesse of donors with private planes disproportionately has benefited men’s sports teams, according to a Gazette analysis.