Noah Shannon Suspended for Season

Iowa Appealing NCAA Ruling for 6th-Year DT

Iowa's Noah Shannon (99) awaits the snap during a game against South Dakota State on Sept. 3, 2022 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

IOWA CITY, Iowa - On Tuesday, an Iowa press release stated that the university received information from the NCAA on 11 current-student athletes investigated for sports gambling. The school could not publicly identify the individuals due to privacy laws. 

Sixth-year Hawkeye defensive tackle Noah Shannon made public last month that he was part of the investigation. He gave Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz permission to talk about his punishment. 

"Right now, he does have a year's suspension, a season suspension," Ferentz revealed at a press conference Wednesday here at the team's practice facility. "We're definitely going to appeal that, the department will appeal that. I'm confident (interim AD) Beth (Goetz) will do a great job, that the department will do a great job. 

"I'm hoping the appeal maybe will reflect some people rethinking things a little bit."

Ferentz clarified that Shannon has not been charged with a crime. The coach added that his senior did wager on another team at Iowa, but not his squad. 

"He bet for them, and I'm guessing he got caught up in the emotion. (The app is) on his phone. People are enticing him with 300 bucks of credit if you go with us, all that stuff," Ferentz said. 

The other student-athletes in the program that learned their punishment this week did not give Ferentz permission to talk about their cases. He spoke in general terms. 

"You have a couple of guys looking at serious consequences, potentially. We have a couple of guys looking at suspensions and another guy who is in an appeal state," the coach said.

Ferentz confirmed that other guys will be out of competition. 

"I can say this, they're both multi games. One's longer than the other. I'm sure that based on whatever criteria they based it on. We'll live with that," he said. 

Shannon (6-0, 295) returned to practice last week after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery. The Illinois native started all 27 Hawkeye games the last two years, collecting 91.0 tackles (46 solo, 10.5 for loss) with four sacks. The Big Ten coaches and media named him honorable mention all-conference after each of the last two campaigns. 

"He hasn't committed a crime. You could commit crimes and get a lot less punishment, which seems kind of funny in a lot of ways," Ferentz said. 

Ferentz has continued complementing Shannon for his character ever since it was revealed that he was part of the gambling investigation. Shannon's accomplishments and positive behavior at Iowa will be presented in the appeal. 

"I expect it to be multi games if they (the NCAA) do rethink it. I'm hopeful it will be. Here's a guy who's 23. He's given is heart and soul and some body parts to this program. I'd just like to think he'd be allowed to finish," the coach said. 

Shannon remains with the Hawkeyes for now. 

"I want to keep him involved with the team. I'm looking at it from a different standpoint, maybe a little more humanistic. The more he's around the better, but if the NCAA tells us he can't be then that's the way it goes," Ferentz said.