A new NIL collective at Iowa will launch soon; here are the details

The University of Iowa's official NIL collective will launch next week. In a university release issued Thursday afternoon, it was revealed that the "Iowa Swarm Collective" will hold an introductory news conference at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Marriott hotel across from Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz and men's and women's basketball coaches Fran McCaffery and Lisa Bluder will take part in the news conference, signaling the collective will serve all three of those sports. 

The collective will be led by Brad Heinrichs, a four-year letterman in golf and a 1997 graduate of Iowa who runs an actuary firm in Fort Myers, Florida. Heinrichs, other Iowa Swarm Collective executives, and executives from United Way of Johnson and Washington Counties will be present on Tuesday as well. 

"As a former student-athlete at the University of Iowa, I am excited to form The Swarm Collective — a non-profit corporation that contracts with Iowa's student athletes to serve the community,” Heinrichs said via press release. “NIL is a wonderful tool for student-athletes to be able to profit from their name, image and likeness. Our objective is to use their popularity for the benefit of the Iowa community by raising money or providing services to local charities and other non-profit organizations.”  

Last week, another group called the Iowa City NIL Club announced a partnership exclusively with Iowa football. That group is offering membership to fans for $199 that includes exclusive digital and in-person events with players and other perks throughout the year. It's set to officially launch Friday. 

In mid-May, Iowa athletics director Gary Barta was optimistic about the direction of the now-announced Swarm collective and liked that it would be in alignment with NCAA rules and would have a charitable element. Barta hinted that the official collective announcement would be coming soon during his summer presser. 

“The people that have asked about it, they love Iowa, they love the Hawkeyes, they want to help students, they want to remain competitive in athletics," Barta said then. "But they want to do it the right way."

Ferentz indicated in a Register interview in June that the money pumped into the collective would benefit rostered Hawkeye players and not go toward recruiting. Ferentz sees each player receiving the same amount, whether a star player or walk-on. More details will be heard from the 24th-year head football coach (and McCaffery and Bluder) next week.

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.