By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa City NIL Club has no direct affiliation with the University of Iowa Athletic Department, but how it’s structured and its approach has Hawkeye athletics, and more specifically, Kirk Ferentz’s influence written all over it.

Or, so it would seem.

While rules prohibit Kirk Ferentz, or any Iowa coach for that matter, from having a connection to Iowa’s NIL sources, it would be foolish to think that Ferentz’s opinion about how it should operate doesn’t matter.

Because it does matter a great deal, as it should.

Kirk Ferentz’s team-first mentality, and his concerns about NIL ultimately hurting the game that he loves because of what he fears will be outrageous bidding wars for players, appear to have been key factors in helping to create the model and define the mission of the Iowa City NIL Club, which is scheduled to launch on July 15.

The Iowa City NIL Club released the following statement from the Iowa football players as part of an early-access launch this past Wednesday that explains how it’ll work, what it’ll cost to join and what are the benefits to joining.

The Iowa City NIL Club is a membership-based community that allows fans to access and support like never before.

Benefits of becoming a member include the following:

Meet-and-greet with the team.

Annual NIL members only tailgate.

Online community to engage with the players.

Access to player created content.

The 2022 access pass will cost $199 and will include all of the above benefits.

Proceeds from the sales will equally support every team member that is participating.

That last sentence about sales equally supporting each team member was written in bold in the statement because it’s the part that Iowa wants to emphasize the most; fairness and that no player is bigger than the team, even when it comes to NIL.

Sales of the Iowa City NIL Club 2022 Access Pass will be limited to 2,000 and will be available starting in late July through the group’s website at IowaCityNILClub.com

Minnesota recently launched a YOKE-powered collective that is almost identical to Iowa’s player-driven model, as did Michigan State. The organization is led by players, while the infrastructure is put together by YOKE, which is considered the premier web3 company providing technology for athletes to build community and monetize their name, image, and likeness.

The group sells access passes to the fanbase with the sales pitch of having opportunities to interact with the team from VIP tailgates to one-on-one interactions. Student-athletes reportedly will split 75 percent of the revenue, while YOKE takes 25 percent.

The Iowa football players certainly won’t get rich through this model, but they will be treated the same, and fans that purchase an access pass will have more access to the players on a personal level than fans that don’t purchase a pass.

Multiple Iowa players have encouraged fans on social media to purchase an access pass.

It might be worth reconsidering the decision to limit membership at 2,000 because that number seems too small based on how many fans might want to participate.

The Iowa City NIL club posted an update on Friday saying that in less than 48 hours, more than 2,000 people had joined the early access list, and that they are now looking into ways to expand membership.

The cost is reasonable for what fans would get in return, but the players, let’s say roughly about 100 of them, would only get about $4,000 annually with memberships limited to 2,000 passes at a cost $199 each.

So, if it’s possible to have more members, then yes, do it.

This equal-opportunity approach could hurt Iowa’s chances of landing some marquee recruits who are determined to go to the NIL highest bidder.

But those cases would seem few and far between based on the recruits that typically sign with Iowa, and Kirk Ferentz isn’t about to get involved in any bidding wars.

This seems to be Kirk Ferentz’s way of saying, ‘okay, let’s get the ball rolling, but also remember who we are and what we stand for at Iowa.’

And that’s okay.

The fans seem to benefit from this model as much or maybe even more than the players will because fans are gaining special access at a reasonable price.

And there is no middle man standing in the way as the money will go directly from the fans to the players.

If Kirk Ferentz didn’t have any influence over Iowa’s NIL model and mission statement, then I will stand corrected.

But the model just seems too similar to how Kirk Ferentz operates with more substance than style, and with more emphasis on group than individual.

Ferentz knows that NIL is out of his control in some respects, but he also knows that what he believes still carries a lot of weight, even in this new world of college football.

 

https://twitter.com/IowaCityNILClub/status/1545443830719201282?s=20&t=BHFdNmPH5LrJqyaZfnetLg