New Iowa Craft Beer Nets Huge Profit In First Month That Will Be Used To Pay Hawkeyes Athletes Through Top NIL Collective

Name, Image and Likeness funds are not the end-all, be-all in college sports, but NIL's role within recruiting and roster retention cannot be understated. Although money has always played a role in "amateur" athletics, the dollar is more important now than ever before.

The increased importance has forced programs nationwide to be innovative in the space, like Iowa.

Iowa has its own NIL beer!(Photos by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)

Success has a direct correlation to the size of a program's NIL pool— take Miami basketball for example.

There are exceptions, as with anything. However, more money creates more opportunities, and more opportunities leads to a higher chance of achievement, as with anything.

The new era has created something of an arms race across the collegiate landscape. Especially within college football and basketball.

NIL collectives popped up all over the country after the NCAA passed its "interim" guidelines and allowed athletes to profit from their Name, Image and Likeness on July 1, 2021. Many schools have consolidated their collectives to create a coherent, controlled operation.

That is true for Iowa. The SWARM Collective has become the Hawkeyes' primary NIL arm.

In an effort to get creative in fundraising efforts, beyond simply asking for donations, SWARM joined forces with Exile Brewing Company of Des Moines, Iowa back in May. They teamed up to brew a custom beer called SWARM Golden Ale, which first rolled out last month.

The beer is on-tap at Exile's brewery.

It is also on sale in select stores across the Hawkeye State.

For every SWARM Golden Ale sold, 20% of the revenue will go back to the SWARM Collective. That money is then used to fund NIL opportunties for Iowa athletes.

Considering how much Midwesterners, especially Iowans love beer, it could prove to be a very profitable partnership. Why not suck down some suds while also helping the football program buy a new linebacker, or the track and field program buy a new high jumper? (If we're calling a spade a spade.)

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.

Iowa's NIL beer is already making bank.

Exile did something of a soft launch last month and SWARM Golden Ale production and distribution will continue to ramp up in coming weeks and months. June was the first partial month in production.

Ssales of SWARM Golden Ale netted $30,000 for the SWARM Collective in June alone. That means that Exile sold $150,000 worth of SWARM Golden Ale with 20% going back to the collective.

That was before it made its way into restaurants, entertainment venues and retail stores. That was before Hawkeyes fans loaded up on the NIL beer for tailgates this fall. It was also before SWARM Golden Ale made its way into Iowa athletic venues, which is something that Exile and the collective hope to see in the near future.

Once that all comes together, SWARM may soon become the most-drank beer amongst the Hawkeyes faithful. It tastes good and helps Iowa athletics to compete financially with other Big Ten programs!