Papa Johns Pizza of Iowa is new NIL partner of The Swarm Collective

The Swarm Collective announced Thursday it has partnered with the independent franchisee Papa Johns Pizza of Iowa to support Iowa men’s and women’s basketball players through name, image and likeness opportunities.

Iowa men’s and women’s basketball players will participate in social media campaigns and attend meet and greets on behalf of Papa Johns Pizza of Iowa.

“Our program is very appreciative of Matt Donaldson and Papa John’s of Iowa for their generous support,” Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery said in a statement. “Their commitment will provide numerous opportunities for our men’s basketball student-athletes. We look forward to a great relationship between Papa Johns of Iowa and our program.” 

Papa Johns Pizza of Iowa operates 28 franchises in Illinois, Iowa and South Dakota, according to a news release.

“In addition, they will also work together in giving back to the community – Pizza with Purpose,” according to the release.

The Swarm Collective is one of dozens of NIL collectives nationally that have filed for 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service.

Swarm Collective supports basketball, football players

The Swarm Collective supports Iowa football players, plus the university’s basketball players through NIL agreements.

“We’re set up a bit differently than many in that we raise money across all three sports and really socialize it so that every player has a minimum amount as an opportunity,” The Swarm Collective CEO Brad Heinrichs told On3 in March. “This year, I think that number’s around $10,000, and so every player on any of those three sports has that opportunity for sure.

“Then, depending on donations that are specific to a particular sport, like say I go and talk to a big donor and he says, ‘I want to give $100,000, but I just want it to go to women’s basketball.’ OK, so the $100,000 goes to the women’s basketball bucket. … That raises that (original) $10,000 up to a certain amount for women’s basketball.”

Given the recent success of the Iowa women’s basketball program, which lost to LSU in this month’s national championship game, Heinrichs said donors’ interest is often seasonal in terms of which athletes they want to support.

“Depending on the season, it seems like that’s where the money comes in,” he said days before the Final Four. “You know people aren’t necessarily thinking about football right now. They’re kind of focused on women’s basketball. I will tell you that having successful teams certainly helps fundraise.”

Heinrichs said every member of Iowa’s women’s basketball program except for one participated in The Swarm Collective’s events and received compensation. Recently crowned Naismith Player of the Year Caitlin Clark hasn’t signed with the collective. Heinrichs chalked it up to Clark’s popularity combined with the timing of when he launched The Swarm Collective.

“She is not (part of the collective),” Heinrichs said. “We started our collective back in July of 2022 and that was long after NIL became a thing. As you can imagine because of her popularity, the minute NIL became a real thing, she was a hot commodity. She became very popular amongst national brands and I think she signed with Nike and Bose and Hy-Vee and some really big national brands long before we even became an entity. I think she’s got a team around her that advises her and while I think she’s wanted to kind of attend some of the events with her teammates, she has tended to stay away and spend her free time with these national brands as opposed to doing some of the more local work with her teammates and that’s totally fine. You only have so much free time.”