Iowa Hawkeyes Fans Raise Nearly $60,000 For Top NIL Collective By Drinking Beer

Name, Image and Likeness continues to play a crucial role within collegiate athletics, and NIL collectives are forced to find creative ways to involve its fanbase in the operations. Although a simple crowdfunding-like strategy works to an extent, it gets tired.

Innovation within the NIL space is the only way forward. The strategy needs to go beyond generic donations to a slush fund.

To do so, many collectives across the country are working with athletes to endorse products that put money right back into their pockets. Missouri's NIL pizza is just one example.

Another example is NIL beer. Programs across the country, through their collectives, have partnered with local breweries to produce hops-based alcoholic beverages that pay the athletes through sales.

South Carolina's Garnet Trust recently announced Sand Storm Game Day Lager. Boise State has the Horseshoe Golden Ale. Iowa has SWARM Golden Ale.

Iowa's NIL beer profits continue to skyrocket.

The SWARM Collective partnered with Exile Brewing Company of Des Moines, Iowa back in May. Their Golden Ale first rolled out in June and 20% of the revenue goes right back to the Collective.

That money is then used to fund NIL opportunities for University of Iowa athletes. People love it.

Hawkeyes fans are even going out of their way to pick it up where they can and bring it home.

Needless to say, it's been a big success thus far.

Iowans love their beer and now they can help buy a new middle linebacker or middle hitter through the transfer portal. Or something like that.

There is a lot of hope about what it could become.

We have lots of runway down here at Exile to make really tens of thousands of cases of this beer and if we start getting up into those numbers – tens of thousands of cases or even more than that – if this beer gets on the level of popularity as like our most popular beer Ruthie, you'd be looking at a donation for The Swarm of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually from Exile.

SWARM Golden Ale's first month in existence, which was just a small rollout, made bank.

The second month, July, was even more profitable!

SWARM Golden Ale netted the SWARM collective $58,500 last month. That means the beer totaled $292,500 in total.

Over the course of just two months, SWARM Golden Ale has raised just shy of $100,000 for Iowa's top collective. All of that money goes right back into the pockets of the athletes, across all sports.