By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Neither Fran McCaffery nor Lisa Bluder have relied on the transfer portal to build their roster, but this spring will likely see both Iowa head coaches more active than usual.

Bluder faces the daunting task of replacing the greatest player in program history in Caitlin Clark, along with four other seniors that helped Iowa finish as the NCAA runner-up in each of the past two seasons, while McCaffery has to replace three of his top players from last season, including second-team All-Big Ten guard Tony Perkins, who is in the transfer portal.

McCaffery also has to replace his son, fifth-year senior forward Patrick McCaffery, who announced Saturday afternoon that he will transfer to Butler for his final season, and graduate forward Ben Krikke.

Sophomore guard Dasonte Bowen also has entered the transfer portal.

So, Fran McCaffery can certainly offer playing time for those interested in transferring, as could Bluder.

However, it takes more than playing time to entice players to transfer in this age of name, image and likeness and that is where Iowa faces a steep challenge, especially on the men’s side.

NIL was originally designed to pay players during their time in college. But it is now used more as a way to recruit players before they enter college or to entice them to switch schools after they enter college.

And with the NCAA offering no supervision or structure, NIL has sort of turned into free agency in which the rich get richer.

Fran McCaffery can offer playing time, a chance to compete in a prestigious conference and the exposure that comes with it.

But it’s hard for him to compete from an NIL standpoint against the growing number of programs that have turned NIL into pay for play.

That isn’t meant as criticism for Fran McCaffery, or for Iowa, because in fairness to Iowa, it is using NIL money the way it was intended to be used – as a reward to the current players.

In this case, however, doing the right thing puts Iowa at a competitive disadvantage, and the gap, especially in men’s basketball, only seems to be widening with no supervision from the NCAA.

It was reported shortly after John Calipari was hired as the new men’s basketball coach at Arkansas that he would have $5 million in NIL money to use on an annual basis.

While that figure is enormous, it’s easy to see where a chunk of that money comes from with Walmart and Tyson’s Chicken both located in Arkansas.

Calipari spent the past 15 seasons coaching at Kentucky, which is one of college basketball’s long-standing powerhouses.

But he felt it was time for a change for him, and for Kentucky.

So, Calipari relocated to a school that has more NIL money than tradition because he obviously knows the importance of having vast NIL resources moving forward.

“Unfortunately, I think with Iowa we don’t have the billionaires that are interested, and I don’t think we have any billionaires anyway, but if we do have them, they’re not emotionally tied to the Hawkeyes’ success, so to speak, and aren’t willing to front that kind of money,” said Brad Heinrichs, CEO of the Iowa Swarm Collective. “So, we’re going to have to rely on crowd funding in order to compete. We’re going to need to beat them with lots and lots of people donating whatever they can, a lot of crumbs adding up to a nice meal.”

Heinrichs made those comments on the Hawk Fanatic radio show and podcast this past Wednesday.

He spoke for nearly 30 minutes about the challenge Iowa faces with NIL.

There are rumors that a lack of NIL money was the main reason Tony Perkins entered the portal.

The Indianapolis native has trimmed his list of schools to Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, Arkansas and Ole Miss.

“Him entering the transfer portal I don’t think was a surprise to anybody, within Iowa basketball or me,” Heinrichs said of Perkins. “Could NIL have been the reason for that? It could be. But that hasn’t been something that has been articulated to me.”

Heinrichs said Iowa’s Swarm Collective is in a much better place than it was a year ago, but that there still is more work to do.

The Iowa men’s basketball team is expected host at least two players in the portal later this month. They are Drew Thelwell from Morehead State and Camren Hunter from Central Arkansas.

During the 2023-24 season, Thelwell, a 6-foot-3 guard, averaged 10.0 points, 6.2 assists and three rebounds per game for a Morehead State team that made the NCAA Tournament where it lost to Illinois in the Round of 64.

Thelwell combined to start 68 games over the past two seasons for Morehead State.

Hunter, who is also a 6-3 guard, made 60 starts combined over two seasons at Central Arkansas. He had previously entered the transfer portal last offseason and committed to Butler, but ultimately chose to return to Central Arkansas.

However, Hunter missed the entire 2023-24 season due to an injury.

He averaged 16.9 points, five rebounds and 3.9 assists per game during the 2022-23 season.

It is uncertain how much of a factor NIL will have with both players.

But if they are like most players in the portal, NIL money probably will be a factor.

As for the Iowa women’s basketball team, it is among a handful of schools that Villanova guard Lucy Olsen is considering. Olsen averaged nearly 24 points per game this past season.

She will reportedly visit Iowa this coming Tuesday.

Kentucky guard Maddie Scherr is also reportedly scheduled to visit Iowa this week.

The Iowa women sold out all their home game this past season for the first time ever, thanks largely to Clark’s immense popularity.

A recent report from the Common Sense Institute (CSI) says that Clark helped to generate as much as $82.5 million to the state’s economy.

The report, titled “Clarkonomics,” published March 21, gives a detailed analysis of Clark’s economic impact on the state, primarily through increased attendance at Iowa women’s basketball games.

Whether that will lead to more NIL money for the Iowa women’s team remains to be seen.

Heinrichs said fans are making more requests to use their NIL money for the women’s basketball team.

The Swarm Collective also helps to raise money for the Iowa football team.

In fact, Heinrichs said NIL money played a role in helping to convince multiple defensive players on the Iowa football team to return next season. He said some of the players even turned down more lucrative NIL packages from other schools to stay at Iowa.

So for some, it isn’t just about the money.

But they seem to be the exception to the new rule.