NIL Newsletter #131 | Happy New Year, Iowa's Collective Struggles, Portal Tampering, Bowl Season, + ICYMI
Happy New Year! Welcome to the NIL Newsletter by Optimum Sports Consulting - providing valuable, actionable NIL resources for student athletes, administrators, agents and other sport professionals.
Recapping NIL This Week:
Iowa AD and Iowa Collective Continue Power Struggle
The Iowa Swarm Collective, created for NIL deals with Iowa’s Football, Men’s, and Women’s Basketball student-athletes, has faced some recent difficulty from an unlikely source, the Iowa Athletic Department.
While departments around the country have hurried to embrace collectives, throwing their support behind them, Iowa’s AD has yet to follow suit.
After former Michigan QB Cade McNamara’s transfer to Iowa, the number of donors for Iowa Swarm nearly tripled. This is in spite of any support from the Athletic Department, which refuses to provide Iowa Swarm with either a statement of support or a list of Iowa season ticket holders and donors. Iowa promises not to assist the collective until the collective agrees to meet Title IX requirements when distributing funds.
Iowa Swarm CEO Brad Heinrichs: “SWARM refuses to raise money to spread payments equally across all sports to comply with Title IX. We are not subject to Title IX. We are not affiliated with the university.”
Full story is available HERE.
Tampering Allegations made by Pitt HC Pat Narduzzi
Pittsburgh Football Head Coach Pat Narduzzi alleged a few weeks ago that two schools had offered sums of up to $5 million to UNC Quarterback Drake Maye, hoping to entice a transfer to their university. The reports appear to be untrue at this time.
Maye told ESPN that the sums mentioned “weren’t really reality” and that no one offered him anything. “Sadly, I think money is becoming a reason why kids go places. Where I’m playing at and with and for? Coach Brown? Just that Carolina blue outweighs the money part of it. I don’t think any amount of money from whatever school (would sway me).”
Narduzzi was again involved in a controversy, this time regarding a recruit that selected Utah over his Pitt Panthers. In a press conference, Narduzzi insinuated that NIL played a key role in the recruit selecting Utah.
Utah AD Mark Harlan had some strong words for Narduzzi: “It’s frustrating, and I am furious at the Pitt head coach for his comments yesterday. I have made it very clear to my counterpart at Pitt that that’s unacceptable. It’s not the way we do things at the University of Utah. That being said, I think it shows the frustrations that are out there within the industry, and then outside, fans that may be confused about this whole thing.”
NIL and College Football Bowl Season.
“There’s more drastic change going on in college athletics than I can ever remember and maybe ever in its history,” Nick Carparelli, Executive Director of Bowl Season, says. “It’s time now to shift our focus to Bowl Season and determine what role we play in the college football calendar. Everything else in college athletics is evolving, Bowl Season will evolve as well.”
One major focus of change is the elimination of more minor bowl games, and the possibility of increasing the qualification standard to a record of 7-5.
The other main focus of change is regarding bowl payouts, and the incorporation of NIL. Bowl payouts range widely, from the Bahamas Bowl’s $225,000 and the New Mexico Bowl’s $1 million, to the Quick Lane Bowl’s $2 million and the Valero Alamo Bowl’s $8.2 million. These payouts typically go to the conferences of the teams playing in the game, and then are spread amongst the universities in the conference.
“The payouts from bowl games could certainly be directed entirely to the players instead of the conferences if that’s what the commissioners wanted,” Carparelli says.
The full story is available HERE.
ICYMI Ticker
Charlotte launched the Niner Exchange for NIL deals after expanding their partnership with INFLCR. LINK
Butler launched the Butler Bulldogs NIL Marketplace in partnership with Opendorse. LINK
San Diego State’s MESA Foundation collective is partnering with all scholarship athletes for the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams. They will receive $2,000 a month and are required to attend community service events. LINK
Seminole Boosters ran a TV commercial during the Florida State v. Oklahoma Cheez-It Bowl. LINK