Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa's Swarm Collective vs. the Iowa Athletic Department, Hawkeye Christmas wish list

Episode Date: December 26, 2022

The Iowa Swarm is the largest Iowa Hawkeye collective as it deals with the waters of NIL. It has run into issues from the Iowa Athletic Department.We talk about the issues and what can be done to keep Iowa competitive in the NIL space.Then Trent has his Christmas wish list for Iowa football and basketballSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!NHTSADrive high, get a DUI. Click HERE to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Iowa Swarm Collective is having issues with the Iowa Athletic Department and Gary Barta. I tell you today why this is a big reason and a big problem for Hawkeye fans. We also get into our Christmas wish list. That's right, Christmas just wrapped up. We got some wishes and some last minute shopping maybe out there for you. We're having some fun today. Glad to have you aboard with us. This is Locked on Hawkeyes. Our Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Merry Christmas and welcome into the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. I'm Trent Condon. Glad to have you aboard with us as we talk the world of Hawkeye athletics. Available for you each and every day. Your team every day here on the Lockdown Network. And if you can, hit us up on YouTube. That is where you can watch our show each and every day, your team every day here on the Lockdown Network. And if you can hit us up on YouTube, that is where you can watch our show each and every day.

Hit that subscribe button while you're there. If you're on podcast, five-star reviews, that's what we're looking for as we try to get in front of as many Hawkeye fans as we can. Well, hope everybody enjoyed a very Merry Christmas and getting ready, of course, for the new year as we count down to days until Iowa gets back on the hardwood again. Waiting for that game against Nebraska, trying to get the sour taste out of their mouth against that devastating loss against Eastern Illinois. A bounce-back factor obviously going to be there.

We'll be looking forward to the matchups coming up this week as Iowa will be on the road for their first two of the main schedule of the Big Ten. Of course, had the game already against Wisconsin, but they'll open on the road later this week against Nebraska. And then over the weekend at Penn State before they come home for Indiana. A very important time. Iowa kind of behind the eight ball now as they're playing behind after that loss to Eastern Illinois. Already 0-1 in the Big Ten with the loss to Wisconsin. Trying to bounce back on that front.

We'll be breaking that down a whole lot this week. Also coming up, we have, of course, the Iowa Bowl game. As we get ready for the 31st, it'll be a New Year's Eve matchup against Kentucky. It's not a juicy matchup, not a whole lot of excitement. I guess the excitement right now is about seeing Joey Labus, hearing a few things late last week after Kirk Ferentz met with the media on the crazy snow and blizzard day as we were able to hear that during the course of, of course, the Eastern Illinois matchup.

Got to hear some things from him. We'll get into that also as the week progresses. And the Iowa team has departed now for Nashville. They took off on Christmas Day, and they are now in Nashville getting ready for their preparations and trying to get their eighth win of the season. But we have a big topic at the top here today on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, and it deals with the Iowa Swarm. Today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster.

Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Again, linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. So the Iowa Swarm, it is a topic that we've talked about plenty here. And basically what it is, it's something that is happening all across the country iowa a little bit later than others to adapt there were a couple of small collectives that were in place before the iowa swarm got involved so this uh really came to fruition so i've been a longtime subscriber to tom caker site hawkeye report over at rivals and

tom is a guy that i've had on my radio show now for 20 years, going back to my days when I started in radio, Waterloo Cedar Falls back in 2003, 2004, when I got started. So almost 20 years, Tom has been joining me on my radio programs now here in Des Moines on KXNO. And he joins me each and every week towards the end of the week, usually on Friday. So got to know Tom incredibly well. But there's this poster on his message board. He was Tex Hawk,

TX Hawk, and he is the one that came up with the Iowa Swarm, this collective. So as mentioned, a little bit behind. So Brad Heinrichs is his name, and Brad is a former Hawkeye athlete. He was a golfer at Iowa in the mid-90s. Maybe crossed paths with him. We were there about the same time. He's a couple years older than me. And went on to have an incredibly productive career as a... Oh, boy.

Now I even forgot what his job title is. But he's made some money. Let's just put it that way. An actuary. That's what he is. And made some money. Done a good job. He is giving back. And as he saw that nobody is really stepping to the plate in a big level with a collective for Iowa, he said, I'll do it. He has a financial ability to do that.

He does that, just that. He starts it and starts it in a way that is beneficial, certainly for the student athlete and what they're doing and for every football player, every men's and women's basketball player. But then also there's the extra part of it, not just the amount of money that they're able to give to each and every player, but if there are companies out there that want to have them endorse their products, they're also working with these companies in order to make this something that is a possibility so very good for the student athlete very good for iowa and the athletic department it's something

that's necessary and we saw this summer as recruiting was going on in the transfer portal for basketball and fray mccaffrey is out there we talked about far does amok a possibility getting him he ended up in texas tech and one of the main reasons that we heard was because of NIL. A couple of high school kids out there after this summer. I wound up in Tennessee. Highly regarded guy. Reason? Money. NIL.

Now, if you like two places, and one place is offering you $20,000, the other one's offering you $200,000, it's a pretty easy circumstance. Well, I like both these places, but one place is giving me $10,000 10 times as much about money it's very easy right and that is something that Brad and the Iowa Swarm is working to do very simple put your money in

your fan excuse me as you can see I'm still battling the cold but uh as a fan you can donate you donate monthly a little less than 20 a month i mean that that's the base level and it goes up from there and whatever your ability is and you're helping fund the athletic department these student athletes the guys that are putting out on the line the ladies that are doing it and you're giving money to them. So I know Brad has talked for a while about working for a possibility of getting involved deeper with the athletic department,

working with the athletic department, and most importantly, getting in front of season ticket donors, the people that write the check every single year for football, for basketball. Those are the people that you want to get in front of. Those are the people that you want to say, hey of. Those are the people that you want to say, hey, this is what we need to do to keep up. And the athletic department has been very reluctant. Brad has been very outright at talking about that

on the Hawkeye Report message board that this has been a difficult circumstance. I stopped over, they had an event here in Des Moines about a month back and stopped and talked to Scott, a member of the Swarm Collective that helps put things together a little bit about it and just to get more about it. I know this is uncharted territory.

We're working in murky waters that we've never dealt with before in college athletics, but it's the reality. And so the other day, Brad was told after recording a message with Kirk Ferentz, which Kirk is willing to do, Frank McCaffrey's been willing to do, Lisa Bluter's willing to do because they know this is the reality, is told by the athletic department, you can't do this. We're not going to send this out to the season ticket holders.

We're not going to do what we thought we were, and they're hiding behind title nine now this is something that the athletic department in general has continued to hide behind all kinds of different things gary bart has made numerous mistakes he has cost the athletic department tens of millions of dollars at this point in time with litigation as good of a fundraiser as he has been, he has struggled in many aspects of being a director of athletics. And this is another. This is the new reality. And you don't have to like it. But this is the way the world is going.

In order to compete at the highest levels, and not even at the highest levels, compete just at the basic, arbitrary level that Iowa has been throughout the past couple of decades, to compete at the level that they have been at, just to keep up, you have to have a solid collective in place that is going to pay these student-athletes. Iowa has that. Iowa needs more. The Swarm Collective needs more members to get that number up

and to get the funding at a level that they're competing, not just with the Ohio States and the Michigans of the world, but also competing with your other brethren, the Nebraskans, the Purdue's, the Illinois's. You need more members. You need more people. And how you do that, you get in front of the people that spend the money. The athletic department is not willing to do that.

We'll talk about this a little bit more. We got our wish list as well. That's right. We're making a list, checking it twice here. What do we want on our Christmas wish list for Hawkeye Athletics? That's all coming up here as we continue on Locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast brought to you by LinkedIn. These days, every new potential hire

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Hit us up with five-star ratings. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. As we continue the conversation, so great article up by Pat Hardy over at hawkfanatic.com. Kind of breaking things down. He talked earlier, late last week with Brad, a little bit about this and the Iowa Swarm Collective and some of the difficult things that are happening

inside the athletic department to make it tough on them. Also a post from the message board from Hawkeye Report from Brad where he talked a little bit about some of the things we talked about and already recorded from Kirk Ferentz talking about in order to compete for championships, you need to have a competitive NIL, be competitive in the NIL space. And went through that, the frustration though, it's real.

So what can be done? What can be done to get the athletic department to realize where athletic departments all over the country are working together with their collectives? Now, athletic departments cannot fund these. Athletic departments cannot build their own. That is a difference. And you might look at it and you might say, well, boy, you know, Iowa does very well financially and the money they bring in, the facilities that they're able to build and the upgrades that they're able to make and on and upgrades that they'll be able to make, and on and on and on, because I donate my money.

I sign the check for $1,000, $10,000, $100,000, whatever it is, I do that, but it won't hurt the athletic department if that money is going elsewhere. And I get it, and I understand it. But what you have to realize is there's more money coming in now to the athletic department it's coming right around the corner with the new tv deal and this is a new reality you know are you going to be able to be like clemson and put a water slide in your football trading offices again probably not you have to be smart because that money that just overwhelming amount of money that you're

throwing out there for really no reason into all these facilities and the locker rooms and everything that goes into it instead of money going there it's going into the pocket of the student athlete they can't come from the athletic department it has to come from one of these collectives short-sighted by gary barda shouldn't come as a surprise. He's been incompetent. He has been a struggle and many factors of an athletic director. Yet here we are. Let's hope this gets resolved. Let's hope positivity reigns here. Let's hope that maybe the Christmas holiday makes Gary Barta realize, you know what? I'm making a mistake here. Hiding behind Title IX, saying that the reason that they can't do this, they can't support this collective and not support it financially again,

just support it by giving the names of the season ticket holders out is because of Title IX. Because if you're going to have this collective, it has to be for everyone. Collectives are not governed by Title IX. This is not an entity of the university. This is not an entity of the athletic department. Title IX has nothing to do with it. If the women's swimming program, the women's soccer program, the men's golf team, they

have a collective in place and people want to financially help those programs out, they absolutely can. The Iowa Swarm, at least right now, is not made that way. It is for the big three. And the big three? Women's basketball, men's basketball, and the biggest, football. In fact, this could have been put together just for football only. And nobody should bat an eye.

In fact, you look at collectives across the country, many of them are just that. They don't care about basketball. Look at the SEC. The biggest collectives, they care about that. They don't care about basketball. Look at the SEC, the biggest collectives. They care about one thing, and it's about football. Iowa Swarm decided we're going to spread it out a little bit more. They didn't even have to do women's basketball, but they did. Shortsighted, frustrating.

I understand Brad's frustrations with this. What you can do, though, go to iowaswarm.com. You can help out, you can donate, you can become a member. A lot of great things that come along with it on top of not just helping these student athletes and a lot of guys that need the financial help that is out there and that is delivered to them by the Swarm, but also the business relationships that are built. So many good things that happen there with Iowa Swarm. Brad's done it right. This is not one of those places, shortcuts, you know, just looking out for their ownarm. Brad's done it right. This is not one of those places. Shortcuts. Just looking out for their own interests.

Brad doesn't need the money. This isn't anything where he's out there. Boy can I make a buck doing this. He doesn't need that. This guy put up six figures of no money. Just to get this thing off the ground. Maybe with. There's power in numbers.

And if we get more and more people to sign up for the Iowa Swarm and the Iowa Collective, suddenly that will get the attention of Gary Barta. I mean, what's happening right now, it's not good. It's not good for us as fans of Hawkeye athletics and at the biggest levels, the football and basketball teams. If this continues in this route, we're falling behind. In North Carolina, Brad mentioned that he talked with the guy that runs the collective with north carolina university north carolina you saw the drake may story over

the last couple of weeks the amount of money that he has been offered apparently by other programs now that's been walked back a little bit but regardless how he stayed said here's the money that's the new reality that's the world that we live in. Don't like it? Don't have to like it. It is the way of the world now in college athletics. And until rules change, and until there are some safeguards that are put up by the NCAA, and good luck having that happen at any time soon, this is the reality that we're living in.

Let's go shopping, shall we? Let's go to the wish list. As my voice cracks, we battle through here a post-Christmas edition of Locked On Hawkeyes. What is on our wish list for the Iowa basketball team and the Iowa football team? I think you know where I'm going shopping. We'll come back.

We'll tell you about my wish list. What is on TC's wish list for this week? All here on Locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by BetOnline. BetOnline is your number one source for sports betting information, stats, news, and analysis. Hey, another good Sunday here.

We went 2-1 in the NFL. And a great place to go to get all the information that you need, be it if you're betting basketball, football, soccer coming back after the World Cup, maybe even looking at some futures, baseball right around the corner with all the craziness happening in the hot stove league. They have it all at bet online. And if you love sports podcasts, you can find those also at bet online,

always the fastest and easiest way for your sports betting information. Head to the website today or hop on your phone to learn more bet online, where the game starts. All right, let's get it going here and a little Santa Claus, right? Hope you had a great Christmas. And if you don't celebrate, hope you enjoyed maybe a great weekend and some time off. So here we go on this post-Christmas edition of Locked on Hawkeyes.

So I got what I wanted. My wife saw me one day perusing on my phone. I was looking for a new putter. Got the new spider tailor-made. Something that I tried out. I wanted. I just don't golf enough to justify it, but she does such a great job. So I got what I wanted. The kids were happy, smiling ear to ear. We're doing great things. It's just Christmas is wonderful. It really is. Had such a great time. But then I got thinking about the Hawkeyes. And if I really had a wish list of what I was looking for for the Hawkeye athletics, what we could do, what would be on that wish list? So let's start with the football team, right? You know where I am. My wish list at the top is a new

offensive coordinator. Now I know, I know this is not going to be me going once again and talking about nepotism. This is not me once again talking about the awfulness that is Brian Farris. We know the numbers. I've told you the numbers. They're bad. Yes, this is Kirk Farris' offense, and it's going to have the parameters that Kirk wants in place. This is not going to be an offense that is going to revolutionize college football.

That's not what they're going to be, and you can win playing the offense that is going to revolutionize college football. That's not what they're going to be. And you can win playing the style that Iowa wants to play. They have to play better. The offensive line has to adapt. We looked at the changes and we've talked about this a lot throughout the season. Five years ago, when they changed the rules and cut blocking on the offensive line in college football, Iowa really negated a lot of what they want to do, including on the backside of zone blocking. Can't cut anymore.

Certainly not at the same level. And the interpretation by the officials compared to the way that Kurt Ferentz reads the rules, it's different. And Iowa has not been effective running the football since those rule changes have been in effect. The Iowa offense went from average to maybe even a tick above average.

And Ken O'Keefe, when he looked at the totality of what he did as the offensive coordinator, to a step back, to below mediocre under Greg Davis, to awful under Brian Ferentz. It can be at least okay. We've seen that happen in the past, but there has to be a willingness to go out and to change things. This is not to say that Brian Ferentz is a bad football coach, because I don't believe that. I believe he's a good football coach. I don't believe he's a good offense coordinator. I think you have to pull the band-aid off. What the hope is, and what makes the most sense, and the most likely scenario of the way this plays out, we've talked about it. Kirk, he's not going to fire his son. Gary Barta is not going to

fire Kirk's son. It's just not going to happen. Live in reality. The only way that this is going to come to fruition is for Iowa to have it done for them and for Bryant to get another job. Now, the hope is, from an Iowa perspective, that Bill O'Brien, former Penn State coach, Houston Texans coach, who's been helping out at Alabama this year, is one of their many analysts, that he goes back to New England. He goes back and tries to fix that offense that has been absolutely awful this year in New England with a couple of defensive guys trying to run it.

So that is the hope. Bill O'Brien goes back. He doesn't get a head coaching job. He goes back there to New England. He does that, and he brings his buddy, Brian Ferris, with him. Offensive line coach, tight end coach, whatever it is, that is the easiest way. Now the next step is bring in some new ideas. It can't just be, all right, well, we got John Budmeier. He was an analyst for us this year. We'll just elevate him. He's called plays in the past and just go that route.

Let's get some fresh ideas. Let's get some innovation. Let's get some thought process. Again, not completely changing what you're doing, but an idea to do something that gets us to 2023. On top of it, a passing tree that doesn't look like it's marred in 1970s football. I mean, please, can we have some crossers in there? Can we have some shallow and deep stuff going across?

Just please move it forward. That's what we're looking for. That's on our Christmas wish list, certainly this year for Iowa football. What else is on the wish list? Well, my final thing is fun. In the last two years, and really, last few seasons, Iowa's won a lot of games. This year, obviously, a step back.

The losses to Iowa State and to Nebraska, very frustrating. Even if they won both those games, how much fun is it? Iowa won 10 games two years ago. Was it that much fun? The Penn State game was a lot of fun. That game was fun. But short of that, I said, how many times have I came on here and talking with you guys and saying,

why does it have to be so damn tough, right? Why has it got to be so difficult? The fun. Where's the fun factor? Yeah, winning games is fun. But bring some of the fun back the enjoyment just what gets you gets you ramped up i know yes winning games is fun i i get that but the fun even when they win it's just been pulled away here those last couple of seasons even at a 10

win year even this year as they're running things off and just you're waiting for that other shoe to drop bring back some fun that's on my wish list this year. On my Christmas list for the Hawkeye football team. Over to basketball, a couple of things. Can we get some shooting, please? Get Peyton Sanford going again. Get him going. Connor back healthy even with the wrist injury, shooting the ball well. And a couple other guys stepping up, making some shots. Tony Perkins, let's knock down 39% of our threes. Let's have her and Bracha become a consistent threat out there.

Let's get Chris Murray back out there. That goes hand-in-hand with the next on our Christmas list for Iowa sports. Some help for the basketball team, please. Chris Murray is plantar fasciitis. You don't know. This is something that could be debilitating all season long. This could be something that affects him all throughout the season. We obviously don't want to see that.

I mean, it would just be absolutely devastating if that's the way that this plays out. And it just lingers all year long. And we're not able to see a 100% Chris Murray. When he's back, whenever he gets back, be it this week against Nebraska or Penn State, next week, Indiana, or even a couple weeks further down the line. I don't care when it is. I just want to see Chris Murray healthy. I want to see Connor healthy with that wrist. He's shooting lights out. We finally get to see Connor McCaffrey playing at his highest level of basketball. Let's make sure he's healthy. A little help for this team. And finally, Santa, can you put some toughness in our stocking? Just when times get tough, not to wilt,

you're taking on a bad Richmond team, it's not going well, and you just melt in the NCAA tournament. And you lose to this Eastern Illinois team, and they're dunking on top of you. Eastern Illinois, one of the worst teams in college basketball. Can we get some toughness? Can we get some grit? That's what I want to see out of

Iowa basketball. When times get tough, Fran's a tough guy. He's a Philly guy, right? He's got that toughness. Let's see it out of this team. Be those tough guys. A little tenacity, a little grit. That's what I want to see out of Iowa basketball. That's our Christmas wish list. Hope you had a great one. We'll be back with you tomorrow here on Locked on Hawkeyes. I need to get a drink. I need to get a rest and boy, we got to get ready for a busy, busy week coming up here. Bowl game right around the corner. We got you covered all angles of that. There'll be a lot of stories as people make their way down to Nashville. Hope you have a great time if you're heading down there or if you're listening to us we got you covered here each and every day your team every day on the lockdown network here

and lockdown Hawkeyes we'll talk to you again tomorrow go Hawks