The SWARM is no more
- Thread starter Kceasthawk@77
- Start date
I hope Brad is honored in some way. When NIL first took off, it was him, not the university, who allowed Iowa to stay competitive with paying players. I think it's a smart move to end it and focus all the attention on the Flight Fund to avoid any potential confusion for donors. But Brad was a huge part of the beginning of this new era of college athletics for Iowa, and he should be honored as such.
I said years ago that all of this is insane. I donate regularly to Iowa but it's to student scholarship funds. In fact, I completely dropped all athletic support. Under NIL, the Greenway and Sanders stories will get gone where 2 star recruits build themselves up from nothing to become NFL players. Teams won't want to invest money in development players and when those development players start to see success, they will just transfer to a bigger/better school paying more NIL. Until there are collective bargaining agreements and these kids are bound by contracts, the madness will continue.
I'd disagree that his efforts, (and I thank him for what he tried to do) in any way kept us competitive. No fault of his, but we don't have the money from Joe fan, (who should NEVER have been paying for this) to be competitive. Swarm isn't being stopped to avoid confusion. Its being stopped because it was never going to be competitive and mostly because the new regulations (which were needed as a first step) are going to make it too complicated to make collectives like the swarm viable.
I would have to disagree with your disagreement. While the Swarm wasn’t going to be able to make the splash impact —— due in part to people objecting to paying players shouldn’t be the fans job-it shouldn’t be but reality check, it’s the new system——- but it made a significant difference in the retention of development players who contributed greatly to the success of the program. Keeping kids in the program for year 3 and 4 of their development was definitely significant in the success at Iowa. To do all the heavy lifting while a large number of fans/posters are almost working against your work took far more dedication than I would have. I will continue to wear my Swarm gear and be appreciative of what Brad, Jayne and team did to keep Iowa competitive against challenging odds.
I've already said I respect his effort, and believe it or not I was one of the early contributors wanting to help in some small way since I can't get to games. I quickly realized that fans paying for players was something I didn't really want to be part of. That's my only real comment that's its not he average fans job, but if that's what they want, fine. I'd also don't believe it kept Iowa 'competitive" certainly not with any of the top teams, and that was never going to happen. My hope was that after a few years of just the big money schools seperating themselves even farther from the pack that steps would be made to but guidelines in place to reign this i in. These collectives were never going to get us any closer to some kind of balance when it comes to pay for play. Hopefully the new guidelines will move us closer, and more will be done. I've never been against players being compensating, only with the compensation coming from the entities who are actually benefiting financially footing the bill.
I'd trade the 50 year old tradition for a dual threat QB who doesn't freeze up.
As for Swarm merch, besides the beer and bottled water, at one point either donors or members (I don't remember which one) were getting a free t-shirt. Did anyone here do the player meet and greets that Swarm was offering?
Last year was a decent example that Iowa was competitive and Swarm had a significant role in that.
As far as the ‘not the job of the average fan’ part. I would go with ‘shouldn’t be the job of the average fan’
Unfortunately the system changed and it was needed.
I applaud the effort and the results. Brad could probably share the impact more without the confidentiality agreements
I respect your position. Whether it was needed or not this has all gotten way out of hand when fans are paying players. I give to my church and to numerous organizations which my 7 grandchildren are involved in. Between their sports teams travel, competitive dance travel, and band travel all raising money for their groups, that's where I prioritize. I've followed the Hawks for 60 years, and always will, But if they can't "compete" with the OSU's of the world (which they never have anyway), then they'll probably be in the same pool of 50 other Top schools who cant either. Nothing is going to change significantly.