Iowa NIL Update

[cymonw1980]

Don't we have 300-some donors to We Will at the moment? As in, every single We Will donor could fit in a lecture hall right now.

It's pure fantasy to think we will get to 100,000 much less 14,000.

Feel juvenile to say "We would have a lot of money if [preposterously optimisic number] fans gave money." Of course that is true. Doesn't make it realistic.

It depends.. I do not believe it is easy. Never said that it was - it will be very hard.

But I don't see this as impossible. In my opinion, you need to drive this through a crowd funding type of model. When donors can see growth and how each person is adding to the whole, it makes a big difference.

You can see this on GoFundMe and other crowd funding platforms all the time.

There are many more than 100k fans that spend significant amounts of time and money on ISU athletics.... it will be like hearding cats to get them to sign up one at a time.. but if you have a platform that shows monthly, annual donors and contributions it can create a lot of energy around the effort.

Think about CF - I think that was up to about 1000 donors giving an average of $10 / month on patreon... If CF can get 1000 donors, I think ISU athletics can get 10k.

Takes time and the right platform.

 

[cyIclSoneU]

It depends.. I do not believe it is easy. Never said that it was - it will be very hard.

But I don't see this as impossible. In my opinion, you need to drive this through a crowd funding type of model. When donors can see growth and how each person is adding to the whole, it makes a big difference.

You can see this on GoFundMe and other crowd funding platforms all the time.

There are many more than 100k fans that spend significant amounts of time and money on ISU athletics.... it will be like hearding cats to get them to sign up one at a time.. but if you have a platform that shows monthly, annual donors and contributions it can create a lot of energy around the effort.

Think about CF - I think that was up to about 1000 donors giving an average of $10 / month on patreon... If CF can get 1000 donors, I think ISU athletics can get 10k.

Takes time and the right platform.

I have all the faith in the world in the direction We Will is going and Blum's leadership but there is no value in saying "If we had 100,000 donors then We Will would get X dollars."

 

[SolarGarlic]

Just want to point out that Michigan doesn’t really do NIL, didn’t know Nebraska had much of a fund either.

From what I've heard from national media, Nebraska is one of the top NIL funds in college sports.

 

[cymonw1980]

I have all the faith in the world in the direction We Will is going and Blum's leadership but there is no value in saying "If we had 100,000 donors then We Will would get X dollars."

agree to disagree...

I don't think we will have 100k NIL donors any time soon.... But I hope that over time we could.

Again, if everyone understands how their money is directly impacting our ability to gain / retain talent... and the importance of each of us doing our part, I think there are far more than 100k passionate ISU fans willing to spend $10 a month to make the programs they love better...

 

[SolarGarlic]

Trying to fund NIL with a bunch of small contributions vs having a dozen big donors. Fans think giving $20 is "doing their part". That's not going to work as far as keeping up with NIL of other schools like Iowa, KState, Kansas, Baylor, etc... We could have 50,000 fans contribute $20 and only get $1mill. Another school will have 10 donors combine for $8-10mill.

You know you can have both, right?

Also we're not talking about one-time donations. We want 50,000 contributing $20/month, not just one time. That would be $12 million. (I understand that's overly optimistic, just making a point using his numbers).

"It doesn't work" is self-defeating and flat-out incorrect. Grassroots fundraising can absolutely work.

 

[canker2323]

Can you imagine sitting across from a 16 year old saying, "well we have brand new mustang ready for you when you sign", and the response you get is "cool, so and so offered a Mercedes."

You should watch the 30/30 documentary on SMU football.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

agree to disagree...

I don't think we will have 100k NIL donors any time soon.... But I hope that over time we could.

Again, if everyone understands how their money is directly impacting our ability to gain / retain talent... and the importance of each of us doing our part, I think there are far more than 100k passionate ISU fans willing to spend $10 a month to make the programs they love better...

I think the key part of going to be how you highlight exactly what the NIL program has accomplished. A&M doesn’t even have a top 20 recruiting class this year and a lot of the NIL money stopped coming in as the results on field didn’t match the contributions. While I think this is short sided as players even 5star Oline can take a bit to be ready this is a big concern.

 

[NoCreativity]

I had to spend $1,000+ earlier this year just for the vet to tell me my cat is diabetic. That was fun. Never mind the ongoing costs of special food and insulin.

Wait until your cat starts having complications. My dog went in ketoacidosis after about 9 months of taking insulin and they wanted like $7,000 to treat him without any guarantee he would improve at all.

 

[Die4Cy]

It is depressing how far down the totem pole Iowa State is in terms of offering programs that can be leveraged into high paying careers. Iowa has a lot of the same programs ISU offers, plus the med school and law school. How is that fair? I get that we live in a state that is somewhat sparsely populated with 2 large public university's and a 3rd smaller one, and only so many programs can be offered and only so many students to attend. But still, frustrating that Iowa gets to have the healthier side of the imbalance.

Iowa very effectively managed, with Hayden Fry's arrival, to raise Iowa's athletics profile in the television age while Max Urick was bristling at the ickiness of all that in Ames.

Max done ****** up. That was an opportunity that will not be repeated.

 

[isufbcurt]

A lot of broke lawyers.

That's probably why Lawyers have to bill by the minute.

 

[cymonw1980]

I think the key part of going to be how you highlight exactly what the NIL program has accomplished. A&M doesn’t even have a top 20 recruiting class this year and a lot of the NIL money stopped coming in as the results on field didn’t match the contributions. While I think this is short sided as players even 5star Oline can take a bit to be ready this is a big concern.

Agree - but I would also think this is a much bigger problem for schools with 10-20 donors giving $1M each than it is for a school with 1000's giving small dollars.

If you cut a check for $1M to get a guy and he transfers, doesn't play right away, etc. you will likely be pretty frustrated.

It's much easier to get started with 10-20 donors. But if you can get 10,000 donors giving regularly, it's much resilient to ups and downs on the field.

 

[isutrevman]

agree to disagree...

I don't think we will have 100k NIL donors any time soon.... But I hope that over time we could.

Again, if everyone understands how their money is directly impacting our ability to gain / retain talent... and the importance of each of us doing our part, I think there are far more than 100k passionate ISU fans willing to spend $10 a month to make the programs they love better...

I don't think we have 5k NIL donors anytime soon.

 

[isufbcurt]

Can I donate In-kind accounting services? lol

 

[Die4Cy]

We just need to know what knobs to turn and buttons to push to manipulate this fan base. Is it a Venmo link through social media you use like a "tip jar" when something great happens in Cyclone athletics? Something targeted at getting farmers to donate grain at their elevator and getting a year end write off? If the fan base is a little different in terms of what they respond to, it doesn't make them stingy, you just have to communicate in terms that they will respond to.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

Agree - but I would also think this is a much bigger problem for schools with 10-20 donors giving $1M each than it is for a school with 1000's giving small dollars.

If you cut a check for $1M to get a guy and he transfers, doesn't play right away, etc. you will likely be pretty frustrated.

It's much easier to get started with 10-20 donors. But if you can get 10,000 donors giving regularly, it's much resilient to ups and downs on the field.

Yep 100% agree. That’s why I suggested it 18 months ago. The fact that I got negged to oblivion made me doubt that this was ever going to get real momentum at ISU.

 

[State2015]

We just need to know what knobs to turn and buttons to push to manipulate this fan base. Is it a Venmo link through social media you use like a "tip jar" when something great happens in Cyclone athletics? Something targeted at getting farmers to donate grain at their elevator and getting a year end write off? If the fan base is a little different in terms of what they respond to, it doesn't make them stingy, you just have to communicate in terms that they will respond to.

This football season didn't give us many, but I think capitalizing on big moments is huge. When Tennessee beat Bama they set up a gofundme to replace the goal posts and got a ton of money in just a few days. Obviously they didn't need that money for the goalposts but just a great way to capitalize on momentum. I know Blum has done things like this a few times already in his short time at the helm

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/tennessee-fundraiser-goalposts/

 

[BCClone]

This football season didn't give us many, but I think capitalizing on big moments is huge. When Tennessee beat Bama they set up a gofundme to replace the goal posts and got a ton of money in just a few days. Obviously they didn't need that money for the goalposts but just a great way to capitalize on momentum. I know Blum has done things like this a few times already in his short time at the helm

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/tennessee-fundraiser-goalposts/

People donate for things. If he needs new “something “ like hilton lights that he plans to replace, get a gofundme set up and if he gets a hundred grand, ask a donor to shift that funding to We Will. Gotta be semi creative, not illegal, just creative.

 

[cyfan21]

Wanted to share some of what I’ve put together on Iowa NIL from various sources since there is a lot of talk about what we might be up against.

From what I’ve heard – Iowa could pull together roughly $5-6 mil for NIL right now between their various channels. That’s expected to increase another $5-7 mil in the next 12-18 months as they realign where donors direct money. There are some that believe they could get to $20 mil by 2025 as the new media contract allows further realignment of funds.

While $10-12 mil/year wouldn’t put them in the same category as the elite NIL schools (Bama, Georgia, USC, tOSU, Michigan, TN, Miami, A&M, Oregon, Florida, Texas, Nebraska, etc), it would put them in the Top 30. If they got to $20 mil, they’d be closer to 15-20th.

We Will Collective Club

www.wewillclub.com

We Will Collective | Supporting ISU Student Athletes

Explore events and collaborations that support Iowa State student-athletes through NIL opportunities and community involvement with the We Will Collective.

wewillcollective.com

How is the payment reported for NIL players? Is it a gifted donation or 1099???

 

[Primetime26]

Appreciate all the questions. Honestly our goal is to raise $2M in NIL per year and we are not yet halfway there. I hate to be one to be overbearing by asking, but indeed we are behind most of our peers. Reach out anytime with questions. [email protected]

Saw Iowa landed the High noon sponsorship. how could you let that happen!?

 

[Dopey]

Trying to fund NIL with a bunch of small contributions vs having a dozen big donors. Fans think giving $20 is "doing their part". That's not going to work as far as keeping up with NIL of other schools like Iowa, KState, Kansas, Baylor, etc... We could have 50,000 fans contribute $20 and only get $1mill. Another school will have 10 donors combine for $8-10mill.

Maybe we need a Cyclone Fanatic career planning conference. We all need some self reflection around our career and financial failures.