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IowaLaw's Simple Solution to Iowa's NIL/Transfer Portal Woes

Why?? Dividing NIL money equally amoung football players, not to mention all mens and women scholarship athletes, is a socialist concept. The best, most popular, most productive, should always make more. It’s capitalism. The fundamental concept that has made America the single greatest country the world has ever known. You’re welcome.
Exactly.

Unfortunately, people in high places are changing this.
 
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Man it's sad college sports has come to this.
I feel NIL will be the death knoll for mid-lower programs .
If I want paid athletes to entertain me Ill stick with the NFL.
The college game is becoming less and less appealing with each passing year.
I will always be a Hawk but this NIL thing will just speed up my drift away from the college game. Sad
The SEC has been paying players for years. NIL just allows all teams to legally pay players. “Officially” NIL is supposed to be pay for play. It’s all very Hocus-pocus!
 
Wow, you literally have no idea how NIL work. Also, you are not Iowalaw, you are Iowaslaw. Self awareness is grand.
Why doesn’t he know about NIL? What he explained is exactly what we’ve all read about. Maybe you were offended by the socialist n woke comments? Not sure why. It is what it is.
 
I actually
Man it's sad college sports has come to this.
I feel NIL will be the death knoll for mid-lower programs .
If I want paid athletes to entertain me Ill stick with the NFL.
The college game is becoming less and less appealing with each passing year.
I will always be a Hawk but this NIL thing will just speed up my drift away from the college game. Sad
skipped two games this year and didn't miss it. Anyone who knows me knows I don't miss Hawkeye events, ever.....

The drama around College sports has been a HUGE reason why I am finding better things to do with my time, that, and age 🤣
 
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According to Kirk Ferentz himself, dividing all contributions toward NIL "equally among 115 football players + men's and women's basketball" (i.e. a watering down the limited pot) fits our program and values." “Everybody’s got a role, whether they’re the first guy or the 115th guy on the roster.” ~ Ferentz in July of 2022. Now try recruiting against Jim Harbaugh with that attitude.

Perhaps this year's humbling experience can be a wakeup call. It was clear to most watching Iowa's inept offense and its lack of portal players that the college football world passed Kirk by.

I know for certain Fran McCaffery despises being handcuffed by an illogical socialist system, as it basically eliminates Iowa from contention for any top recruits going forward to ensure that the girl at the end of the women's basketball bench gets paid more than any other backup in college women's basketball.

After all these months watching games, why is IowaLaw the only one on this board pushing for innovation rather than status quo? It doesn't take a whole lot of brain cells to realize it that $ is needed to compete in this new world. Thus far, I've seen zero comments on having wealthy former players lead the charge on Iowa's NIL? Not for it or even against it. Just "meh, why bother. In Kirk we trust."

There are 20+ Hawks on NFL rosters right now. Dozens/hundreds of retired NFL Hawks living in luxury. It makes no sense to continue asking for random Hy-Vee workers in Oskaloosa to be responsible for Iowa success while singing George Kittle's praises to no end. Hey George, your only other offer out of high school was Air Force...to be a WR in a run-first offense. Iowa took a chance on you and developed you. Now you're now worth $80,000,000. Chipping in $100,000 per year would go a heck of a lot further toward future program success than a bunch of Oskaloosa guys paying $20 per month and skipping a meal because of it.

 
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According to Kirk Ferentz himself, dividing all contributions toward NIL "equally among 115 football players + men's and women's basketball" (i.e. a watering down the limited pot) fits our program and values." “Everybody’s got a role, whether they’re the first guy or the 115th guy on the roster.” ~ Ferentz in July of 2022.

Maybe this year's humbling experience will be a wakeup call after the college football world passed Kirk by. I know for certain Fran McCaffery despises being handcuffed by an illogical socialist system, as it basically eliminates Iowa from contention for any top recruits going forward to ensure that the girl at the end of the women's basketball bench gets paid more than any other backup in college women's basketball.

Why is IowaLaw the only one on this board pushing for innovation rather than status quo? It doesn't take a whole lot of brain cells to realize it. Thus far, I've seen zero comments on having former players making millions in the NFL lead the charge on Iowa's NIL to recruit the top athletes? There are 20+ NFL players on rosters right now and dozens/hundreds of retired NFL Hawks living in luxury. It makes no sense to ask for random Hy-Vee workers in Oskaloosa to be responsible for Iowa success while Hawk fans sing George Kittle's praises to no end. Hey George, your only other offer out of high school was Air Force...to be a WR in a run-first offense. You're now worth $80,000,000. Chipping in $100,000 per year would go a heck of a lot further than a bunch of Oskaloosa guys paying $20 per month and skipping a meal because of it.

The pioneers always take the arrows.
 
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Last year, optimistic Hawk fans got their hopes up on dozens of transfer portal possibilities in football and basketball. Sadly, one by one, each of Iowa's top portal targets opted to take their talents elsewhere. Many times, especially in basketball, the targets made their decision on the basis of $$.

Fran McCaffery watched multiple top center prospects consider Iowa (i.e. Fairdaws Aimaq) only to take paydays somewhere else. Now, Iowa basketball is left with a center-less roster that may be 1 player away from a Sweet 16 run. Was anything done to address the problem for next year? Nope.

Kirk too made a feeble effort to bring in Nebraska's QB, Martinez, from the portal only to lose him to Kansas State and lead them to a 9-3 season. Again, NIL money was a factor. Was anything done to address the problem for next year? Nope.

This year, when we hear Michigan's backup QB might consider coming to Iowa...or that a 5 star home grown left tackle is being wooed by Oregon's NIL money, Iowa has a choice. It can either get with the program or get left behind. IowaLaw has two simple solutions that would push Iowa, a Big 10 program with the most lucrative TV contract in sports history, back into the world of contenders:

Drop "Woke" Socialist NIL Policy. The idea behind NIL is to allow kids to profit from their name, image, and likeness. Capitalism at its best. Ohio State head coach Ryan Day recently said it will take around $13,000,000 each year to keep his existing team in tact. It's a concept that allows star players like Caleb Williams transfer to USC for $2,500,000 and transform that program from a 4-8 has been in 2021 to a 12-1 playoff contender in 2022. Money well spent. At Iowa, however, the woke powers that be decided rather than pooling NIL money to ensure that Iowa's most highly sought after athletes are well compensated and encouraged to stick around, the Hawkeyes will be the ONLY program in college sports to allocate NIL money on the basis of equity. Each member of the football, basketball, and women's basketball team would get exactly the same amount, like a 1960s San Francisco socialist commune.

In other words...super star Kris Murray gets the same as the 13th player off the bench on the women's team. Jack Campbell gets the same as Iowa's walk-on 3rd string place kicker. That watered down amount spread over everyone equals less than $2,500 per month. Great deal for the mediocre women's bball player with zero NIL marketability...but an absolutely horrible deal for someone like Kayden Proctor, a 5 star OL who could play anywhere. If Iowa wants to compete for top talent, it needs to scrap the woke socialism and and let the market dictate NIL value. Major college athletics is an arms race, not a progressive pillow fight where everyone gets a trophy.

Tap Into Kirk's Rich NFL Pipeline. We've all seen the graphic showing Iowa having more players on NFL rosters than virtually any school in the nation (I think Iowa is around 7th). From Tristan Wirfs (signed a $16,000,000 contract out of Iowa) to George Kittle (just signed a $75,000,000 contract). From Micah Hyde (just signed a $19,000,000 contract) to Brandon Scherff (just received a $15,000,000 signing bonus). Keegan Murray, who had zero scholarships coming out of high school, was the beneficiary of Iowa taking a chance on him. He just signed a $37,000,000 contract based on his development at Iowa.

When it comes to contributions toward NIL, the dinosaur Iowa administration and Hawk fans alike continue to pull the "aw shucks, we're just Iowa, we can't compete" card. They're resigned to allowing schools with far less riches to cash into the transfer portal while Iowa is left behind. The administration has no problem routinely hitting up every day Hawk fans for contributions. IowaLaw, a beneficiary of an Iowa education, is proudly a longtime SUBSTANTIAL booster himself. Yet the average income in Iowa is just $32,000 and the average Joe doesn't have the means to throw money at 17 yr olds they've never met. Guys like @EvilMonkeyInTheCloset make even less. So why doesn't Iowa have a program in place where they hit up the multi-millionaires who are more invested in Iowa athletics than anyone else, the former players? If each Hawk who signs a pro contract were encouraged to contribute just 1% of their earnings into an NIL pot, Iowa would have millions of additional dollars each year to recruit MAJOR talent. Bringing in more talent would lead to more pro former players and they cycle perpetuates.

The NFL Hawks have a huge interest in Iowa's continued success. They are presumably bigger Hawk fans than anyone else because they love the sport and owe their success to Iowa. Why aren't they paying their fair share when they're driving around in Rolls Royces while Joe Shmo Hawk fan working at Casey's is chipping in $50 to the NIL collective? I happen to know for a fact that at Iowa law school and Iowa med school, graduating students going off to big time jobs are asked to voluntarily chip into a fund to help other graduates going on to lower paying public service work. It's not a stretch to do the exact same thing with sports.


This has nothing to do with capitalism...if it does then the federal and sate funds should be pulled from all universities that you see as businesses, and these NIL kids can help pay for the platform needed (stadiums, clothes, mealsn insured, etc ) to have any NIL value at all.

Get off the BS Capitalism argument, it's BS and doesn't apply to an academic institution that offer educational contracts to these student athletes. And I vote Red fwiw. But I have an independent brain, not just a political one like some.
 
I don't no about Iowaslaw, but I'm not going to write a check.

I won't either.

Ya know how much effort it would take to go the bank, figure how to actually get a check, write it, spell correctly, then have to call around to find an address to send it to, go to the post office to get a stamp, go to Walmart to get an envelope...and finally mail it and wait for a letter back to know if it was received.

Naw...I just clicked the link and used a card...much more convenient.
 
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After all these months watching games, why is IowaLaw the only one on this board pushing for innovation rather than status quo? It doesn't take a whole lot of brain cells to realize it that $ is needed to compete in this new world.

Just a thought, but you could just put a few hundred thousand bucks of your own money up and God knows how many hours a day to set up your own NIL collective. Ya know sort of like the investment made by the person that did set up the one you are complaining about, who also did it without expecting any $$ in return, just helping out Iowa fans.

I mean wouldn't you be supporting socialism or even be a communist if you did not get out there and create an organization to compete with Swarm on the free market?


Thus far, I've seen zero comments on having wealthy former players lead the charge on Iowa's NIL? Not for it or even against it. Just "meh, why bother. In Kirk we trust."

I am willing to bet most of the former Iowa players in the NFL know how to read at least at a college level. Pretty sure they already know about NIL, and I would think if they want to get involved they would. They also may be screw it, I didn't get paid while in college. Would kind of be there free will to make their own decisions....or we back to you being a socialist and deciding how to spend other people money?
 
I'm just waiting for Coleslaw to start posting about "the Storm". I think he may be Q!
 
You can direct where the money goes if you spend the whopping sum of $1k per year thru Swarm.

You’d know that if you’d donated, but whatevs.

Bottom line is that the collective reflects the values of the leadership in the athletic department. Obviously we have 3 coaches and an AD who are, to be charitable, geriatric. Hopefully they start getting the message soon or figure out an exit strategy before they ruin the university’s reputation in sports.

NIL is just as cutthroat as it sounds and TBH we need young, hungry staff that is willing to engage if long-term Iowa is going to be competitive.
 
It's really quite comical how little the folks in this thread understand the Iowa Swarm and how @Tx_Hawk set it up.

Is there an arm that's is giving out equal money? Sure. That's the non profit arm.

There is also another arm. That one is where businesses and companies or individuals can directly make deals with football and basketball players. There is no limit on that one.

It's interesting that the second funding arm is being ignored to futher what is clearly agenda driven thoughts using loaded words like woke.

And the idea that The Iowa Swarm is a joke is joke. It's helped retain players. It's helped impress players like Cade McNamara and Erick All. Just look at their tweets. It will help impress incoming players as well.
 
It's really quite comical how little the folks in this thread understand the Iowa Swarm and how @Tx_Hawk set it up.

Is there an arm that's is giving out equal money? Sure. That's the non profit arm.

There is also another arm. That one is where businesses and companies or individuals can directly make deals with football and basketball players. There is no limit on that one.

It's interesting that the second funding arm is being ignored to futher what is clearly agenda driven thoughts using loaded words like woke.

And the idea that The Iowa Swarm is a joke is joke. It's helped retain players. It's helped impress players like Cade McNamara and Erick All. Just look at their tweets. It will help impress incoming players as well.
and it’s just getting started.
It’s clear the foundation Brad and Swarm are building has massive potential for sustained success +growth.

People often scoff at trying to “do things the right way” at Iowa.
But doing things the right way in business is typically a prerequisite for becoming one of the top organizations in any arena/ industry.

We aren’t aiming for short term impact above all else.
Swarm is building into an engine for massive impact over the long run. I really believe that.
 
Just a thought, but you could just put a few hundred thousand bucks of your own money up and God knows how many hours a day to set up your own NIL collective. Ya know sort of like the investment made by the person that did set up the one you are complaining about, who also did it without expecting any $$ in return, just helping out Iowa fans.

I mean wouldn't you be supporting socialism or even be a communist if you did not get out there and create an organization to compete with Swarm on the free market?




I am willing to bet most of the former Iowa players in the NFL know how to read at least at a college level. Pretty sure they already know about NIL, and I would think if they want to get involved they would. They also may be screw it, I didn't get paid while in college. Would kind of be there free will to make their own decisions....or we back to you being a socialist and deciding how to spend other people money?
I could see a ‘we didn’t get paid, so why should they mentality’ right now. Kind of like student loans getting cancelled or at least what Biden would really like to do there.
 
If anyone needed one more great reason to support the Swarm - being on the opposite end of Iowa Slaw and kcgolfer is a phenomenal one. Not only is there a 99% chance you’ll be on the right side of an issue if you are opposite those two but there is a 100% chance you’ll look like a lot less of a do nothing, whiny, candy ass. Being counter to those two should be good enough to encourage the next 100 to join.
 
Yikes - even the head of Iowa's NIL collective is bashing Iowa's administration for their out of touch, woke, policies.

Gary Barta is unapologetically refusing to cooperate with the NIL collective. He said he will not allow them to use season ticket data and donor lists UNLESS the collective becomes even more socialist than it already is. It's not enough that the collective chose to squander what limited funds it has on women's basketball and walkon football players (unlike any other school)...but now Barta says the collective must spread the money evenly among all sports, including women's field hockey, volleyball, and crew.

Fran will be the first to tell you the basketball team was already at a competitive disadvantage by requiring NIL money to be spread evenly, so Kris Murray gets the same $2,000 per month in NIL that a walkon women's basketball player who hasn't played all season gets. Barta says $2,000 per month is too much, and needs to be spread out throughout all sports.

Why would a football fan who couldn't care less about volleyball pony up $5,000 per year to the collective if the funds will only provide $1 per athlete on campus rather than all going to recruit top football prospects? I personally will not donate another dime to the collective if that's the direction it continues to go.
 
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I see a lot of threads on here touting all the NFL and NBA success former Hawks are having. I think I saw Iowa has the 4th most players playing in the NFL conference championships. It's great to see guys who came in as 2 stars, trained, grew, and got exposure through the U of I hitting it big and becoming instant millionaires. But...

It's now nearly February of 2024. NIL has been in effect for years and has taken over college sports. Yet the head of Iowa's NIL collective just admitted that not a single former Hawk in the pros have contributed to Iowa's NIL to date.

Good for Kittle becoming a celebrity, getting huge endorsement deals and living the high life...but wouldn't it be a given for someone in his shoes to kick in .001% of his income to help bring in a 19 yr old transfer WR with $20 to his name? Regular school teachers in Des Moines are chipping in parts of their paychecks to support the Hawks and they never even went to Iowa or benefitted from the program in any way. Most of the NFL studs would have never got there if it weren't for the Hawkeye program.

The collective has come a long ways since the OP was posted in 2022. No doubt fans have been extremely generous. Landing guys like Proctor and keeping guys like Jackson wouldn't have been possible without fan contributions to the collective. It's allowing the team to tread water in the arms race...but it's not enough to compete with the big guns of the conference (especially with HUGE money Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA joining Ohio State & Michigan in the arms race).

Kirk needs to have a heart to heart with his team, beginning on day 1, helping them understand that Iowa's goal is for them to go on and have successful careers in the NFL or in business...they have a responsibility to pay it forward. Especially guys like Cooper DeJean or Cade who benefitted greatly from the NIL.

"To whom much is given much will be required."
 
I think you will see future players from Iowa contribute. Ones who actually benefitted from NIL. I don't blame the former players one bit for not contributing when they received nothing in terms of NIL.

Also, I really hate posts and people who think they have any say on how others should spend their money.
 
Yet the head of Iowa's NIL collective just admitted that not a single former Hawk in the pros have contributed to Iowa's NIL to date.

I am not going to speak for Brad...but I think it has been very low...but not zero. Dallas Clark is on the board of directors.
 
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I am not going to speak for Brad...but I think it has been very low...but not zero. Dallas Clark is on the board of directors.
I hope Brad is wrong and Dallas has contributed at least as much as the average fan to Iowa's NIL...but let's remember Clark graduated 22 years ago and is long removed from the program.

That means nearly 2,000 Hawkeye football players have gone through the program since then. You'd think a few of them would be appreciative of what the program did for them, both personally and career wise. Even non-millionaires find ways to give back to their high schools or colleges when they had a good experience there.
 
I hope Brad is wrong and Dallas has contributed at least as much as the average fan to Iowa's NIL...but let's remember Clark graduated 22 years ago and is long removed from the program.

That means nearly 2,000 Hawkeye football players have gone through the program since then. You'd think a few of them would be appreciative of what the program did for them, both personally and career wise. Even non-millionaires find ways to give back to their high schools or colleges when they had a good experience there.
Your math is faulty. The roster may have 85 players plus walk-ons each year, but there aren't 85 new players each year. A typical recruiting class has 20-25 recruits so the actual number of players in 22 years would be between 500 and 600.
 
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