Ex-Iowa point guard Tony Perkins’ NIL market value is in ‘neighborhood of $500,000,’ Fran McCaffery says

IOWA CITY — Former Iowa point guard Tony Perkins is “leaving here because he has a market value probably in the neighborhood of $500,000,” head coach Fran McCaffery told the university’s Presidential Committee on Athletics on Thursday at its monthly meeting.

“We were not going to be able to pay him that, so he goes somewhere else,” McCaffery said.

Perkins said a few days later in a tweet, however, that “it’s never been about the money.”

Brad Heinrichs, the founder and CEO of Iowa’s Swarm Collective, told The Gazette in January he hopes to raise $1 million annually for men’s basketball.

Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz reiterated to The Gazette after the PCA meeting that NIL is “critically important” and Iowa’s donors “understand what the national landscape is right now.”

“Although we cannot directly fundraise for the Swarm, we certainly list it when we talk about our priorities,” Goetz said. “As we visit with a donor, we certainly mention NIL importance in our current environment.”

Perkins, a second-team all-Big Ten honoree, averaged 14 points and 4.6 assists per game this season. He narrowed his list of potential schools to six — Missouri, Indiana, Oregon, Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Arizona — in an Instagram post earlier this month.

The 6-foot-4 guard is one of three players from the Hawkeyes to enter the portal, along with forward Patrick McCaffery and guard Dasonte Bowen. McCaffery’s program, while actively searching in the portal, has not yet landed any commitments this year.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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