How will Iowa City NIL Club impact Hawkeyes football? The players gave their thoughts

After a year-long wait, Iowa's first NIL organization has arrived. And after only seven days, there appears to be significant interest. 

The Iowa City NIL Club was announced on July 6. Working exclusively with Iowa football, the group offers membership to fans for $199 that includes exclusive digital and in-person events with players and other perks throughout the year.

The club initially set a goal of 2,000 members for the first year. According to sophomore wide receiver Arland Bruce IV, the interest exceeded those expectations. 

"Right now on our early access list, we have way over 2,000 people signed up," Bruce said. "So right now we're just trying to get that number probably to like three or four thousand."

It's set to officially begin on Friday when the club will begin accepting payments. It's not the same entity as the incoming, official Iowa NIL collective that's been working with the university pre-launch, but athletic director Gary Barta voiced his support for the group last week. 

"That one to me sounds like name, image and likeness," Barta said. 

Iowa football players spoke publicly about the club for the first time on Tuesday. The topic discussed: How will the incoming club impact Iowa football moving forward? To start, it's going to benefit every player who decides to participate. 

The club is housed under a company called Yoke Gaming. Representatives from the company held a dinner for a group of Iowa players to pitch the idea of the subscription-based model.

Some players like senior cornerback Riley Moss decided not to participate but estimates "probably 70% of the team is." The group will serve both scholarship players and walk-ons and pay them an equal amount. If Moss’ 70% validation is correct, roughly 88 participating players are set to earn anywhere from $4,500-$9,000, if the club brings in 2,000 to 4,000 members. 

"It's a good opportunity for those guys to get their name out there," Moss said. "They can meet fans, make money from their name, image, likeness, and I think it's beneficial for them to gain experience with branding themselves." 

The entire team is beginning to educate themselves more on NIL with the club set to launch this week and the official collective coming soon. On Monday the team held a meeting with a NIL professional who taught a seminar on branding, filing taxes properly and more. 

"The guy who came in made a great point about who's going to manage your money," Moss said. "Whether you're in the NFL or with NIL stuff. Sometimes it's your mom or pop or someone you know, but you have to be able to have hard conversations because you are your own business. I think that was the most surprising and useful stuff." 

The club is the Iowa football's first team-wide venture in NIL. A successful first year could mean better perks for members, leading to more membership and more money for players down the road. And it'll help on the recruiting front too, especially with priority walk-on targets with the allure of a money-making opportunity. 

And money aside, Bruce emphasized that players and fans will benefit from frequent personal interactions. 

"Just allowing fans to have a closer look at us as people and not just as Iowa football players," Bruce said. "I think when you really build that connection and get to know someone a little bit more, it means a lot." 

With the Iowa City NIL Club, the incoming collective and any outside deals players negotiate, it appears that Iowa's football team will earn more money in NIL's second year. Moss dismissed any ideas of players earning more than others disrupting locker room chemistry or culture. He doesn't see much changing for them in the months to come. 

"Honestly it's not like we're out in Oklahoma or Texas," Moss said. "We just don't have the market to be getting paid millions or hundreds of thousands (of dollars) so it's really not that big of gap between guys right now.

And even if it was, we don't have those type of guys who get jealous and that type of stuff. A the end of the day we're playing football and we're all brothers. So I don't think there'll be any jealousy." 

Kennington Lloyd Smith III covers Iowa Hawkeyes football and men's basketball for the Des Moines Register. You can connect with Kennington on Twitter @SkinnyKenny_ or email him at ksmith@gannett.com.