Iowa Athletics takes step to incentivize donations to NIL collective

IOWA CITY — Iowa Athletics has taken another step to incentivize donors to financially support its NIL collective.

Those who donate to Iowa’s Swarm Collective will earn I-Club priority points, the athletic department announced Friday morning.

Iowa will award one priority point per $100 in Swarm contributions — the same earning rate as donations to the athletic department — from July, 1 2024 through June 30, 2025, per the release. The priority points impact, among other things, the season-ticket seat selection process for football, basketball and wrestling.

The contributions to the collective will not count toward I-Club membership levels or the per-seat requirements for season tickets, though.

“As we prepare for the changes in collegiate athletics related to the ‘House Settlement’ and revenue sharing, we wanted to recognize those donors who support our student-athletes’ NIL activities through the Swarm Collective,” Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz said in the release.

Swarm CEO/founder Brad Heinrichs said in a text message to The Gazette that this initiative is not only “an endorsement of Swarm, but also a commitment toward winning.”

“The ability to use Swarm donations to count toward priority seating in Kinnick and Carver shows that Iowa Athletics is actively partnering with the Swarm to allow Hawkeye fans to give toward NIL without any drawbacks,” Heinrichs said.

While the points incentive comes with the expiration date of June 30, Goetz said NIL opportunities “will remain a priority for our department and will be solicited through our athletics development team.”

“We will continue to work with the Swarm Collective, and their generous supporters, to determine what their path looks like post-settlement,” Goetz said.

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