The cloudy world of name, image, and likeness, collectives, and the interests of an athletic department bubbled over in the past week at the University of Iowa.

Iowa’s NIL Collective, The Iowa Swarm, was established this summer by former Hawkeye golfer Brad Heinrichs and has helped Iowa football and men’s and women’s basketball stay competitive in the ever-changing landscape of compensating athletes.

The Iowa Swarm and their mission was simple. One arm is a non-profit (501c3), which works with other non-profit organizations and have the athletes attend events or simply show up to spend some time with kids in a local elementary school. There is also another arm that is looking to help link up athletes with business for sponsorship and endorsement opportunities.

Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz has been very appreciative of Heinrichs and the Iowa Swarm’s efforts to keep the Hawkeye programs competitive in this largely unregulated marketplace.

“As I said in the summer, I was really appreciative of Brad jumping in and taking ownership of this thing and making it work. I think we have all seen the landscape change and I don’t think any of us knew where it was going to head, but the reality is sink or swim. I really appreciate Brad’s efforts and the bottom line is it really helps our athletes maximize their value and it helps the community, so it’s a win/win situation,” Ferentz said Wednesday morning.

Which brings us to the current kerfuffle between the Iowa Swarm Collective and the Iowa athletic department.

Looking around the Big Ten and at nearly every power five institution, while there cannot be a formal relationship between a collective and an athletic department, there has been a pretty strong embrace by several well-known athletic directors.

Recently Gene Smith, who is the director of athletics at Ohio State, and Warde Manuel, who leads the Michigan athletic department, sent out letters to supporters telling them to support the various collectives at their schools and give them money to help their programs to stay competitive.

Really what they were saying is we need you to help our football programs by supporting the NIL Collectives by giving them money.

While Michigan and Ohio State appear to be giving their collectives a full embrace, Iowa is more in a hand-shake mode.

The Iowa Swarm had recorded an appeal from Kirk Ferentz for season ticket holders and supporters of the Hawkeyes to give to the collective. The hope was that the athletic department would email out the video from Ferentz and help the collective grow from a financial standpoint and provide more support to football and basketball players in Iowa City.

“My message was basically we could use your support,” Ferentz said. “It’s a different era than a few years ago when you would think about facilities and things like that or scholarships. I think we all have to change our priorities right now because you see it when you are out recruiting right now.”

That recruiting is not only trying to bring in high school recruits or players out of the transfer portal, but also retaining the talent on your roster. With the transfer portal and players not having to sit out a year, it’s becomes open season when it comes to back channel discussions with athletes at other schools.

Ferentz does not want to have massive roster turnover every year and believes in developing his players and retaining them. That means as those players develop and improve, NIL opportunities could emerge.

“That is really where it starts for us because we are not going to be a team of free agents. I take a lot of pride in the guys that have come here and grown in our program. You hear stories that so and so has made offers to these guys. That’s the reality that we have opened the door to now. Most importantly if a guy has earned his way up the ladder as a good team member, why would you want them to walk out the door?,” Ferentz said.

The frustration bubbled over late last week when Heinrichs made a post on HawkeyeReport.com that the Iowa athletic department was not sending out the recorded message from Ferentz citing Title IX concerns and not giving mailing lists to third parties. The Title IX concerns are due to the fact that the Iowa Swarm only funds football and both basketball programs. However, critics of that stance would suggest that Title IX would not apply to any collective because they are not educational institutions supported by funding from the federal government. Does anyone really think that other AD’s would be sending out emails to supporters in the manner they have if they felt it would violate Title IX?

Eventually that led to the open letter from Iowa athletic director Gary Barta that was published on Tuesday morning. While mentioning a public and private appreciation for what the Iowa Swarm and Heinrichs has done for athletes, it was again more of a handshake rather than a full embrace. The letter also was pretty generous in taking some credit for a few accomplishments of the Iowa Swarm. For example, The Iowa Swarm became a corporate sponsor, which means they are advertised at Iowa games and on Hawkeye radio broadcasts. This was a deal between Heinrichs, The Iowa Swarm, and Learfield and Heinrichs and The Iowa Swarm paid the going rate for that sponsorship. Yes, Iowa did have to approve the relationship, but it came at a significant cost to the collective and Heinrichs.

Which brings us to the bottom line in all this.

At the power five level to have a successful athletic department you have to have a successful football program. That is especially true at a place like Iowa. Kirk Ferentz remembers what it was like back in the early 80’s at Iowa. Once Iowa turned the corner on the football field, the athletic department grew and prospered.

In today’s era of name, image, and likeness, to have a successful football program you need a well-funded and professionally run collective. Iowa has a well run collective. It’s professional from the top down and they are providing financial and learning opportunities to football and basketball players in Iowa City.

But, there has to be a more full embrace. Today, Iowa put up the video from Ferentz appealing for support on the Hawkeye Football social media account. That’s a start and a good one. But, it’s not a full embrace.

The Iowa Swarm isn’t asking for the mailing list. The next step should be to contact supports on their email list to see if they want to opt out of communications from the Iowa Swarm. If so, then remove them. Otherwise, let them know about the Iowa Swarm and encourage Hawkeye fans to support it financially because if the Iowa Swarm is successful, then Iowa Football will be able to develop, retain, and recruit the right players, and the Hawkeye athletic department will continue to grow and prosper as well.

This can be a win-win for all involved, but it starts with a hug and not a handshake.

By the way, if you are interested in learning more or giving to the Iowa Swarm Collective go to IowaSwarm.com.