1-on-1 with Beth Goetz: Iowa Athletics navigates new era of paying college athletes
Who gets what? How are they paid? Will it level the playing field? 糖心vlog's Scott Reister has the answers.
Who gets what? How are they paid? Will it level the playing field? 糖心vlog's Scott Reister has the answers.
Who gets what? How are they paid? Will it level the playing field? 糖心vlog's Scott Reister has the answers.
The new era is here.
Since July 1, schools can directly pay college athletes. Just like Iowa State, the Hawkeyes are opting into the plan to collectively pay players the maximum allowed $20.5 million this season. Iowa Athletics Director Beth Goetz told 糖心vlog Sports Director Scott Reister she will not be charging fans a "players fee" or "talent fee" like some schools are doing. Instead, they are analyzing the budget, reallocating money, and raising money through Flight Funds, a fundraising platform that allows fans to donate to each sport. Ticket prices will only be raised by the standard amount this year.
"We have been thoughtful and strategic. You couple that with new sponsorship opportunities and media rights, all that together will put us in position to meet the goal and we feel like we have got a good plan," Goetz said.
Non-revenue sports, also referred to as "Olympic sports," are not in danger of being cut.
"They are not," Goetz said. "We need to make sure we spend our resources in the most impactful manner. We did that across the sports. How and when we travel. Do we need to take two West Coast trips, for a non-conference game and a conference game? We will see some of that."
The department receives no money from the university or the state of Iowa. Figuring out how to add $20.5 million to its operating budget is a big challenge 鈥 so is deciding which programs get what for their players.
"This isn't a decision I make in a silo," Goetz said. "I have a great team. We collaborate with coaches and teams to see where those resources make the most impact. No doubt, we looked at which sports generate the most revenue."
Goetz declined to share specifics, but the general consensus nationally is that schools are allocating about 75 percent of the pie to the football program, the rest mainly to men's and women's basketball.
Staff for those sports now have a point person, often referred to as a general manager, to handle player negotiations and contracts. Iowa's football team has Tyler Barnes filling this role. Iowa prefers to make these deals with athletes for just one year at a time. On the surface, this leaves them open to players transferring, but this method does provide key flexibility.
"Going into this, there is a little bit of 'what does it look like if a deal is not upheld from a student-athlete perspective?' What are the repercussions if someone breaks that contract? How are you going to navigate it? There's a bit of unknown there. For us, knowing they can transfer in a portal window and trying to understand they are going to get evaluated, every year. While we are going to honor your scholarship until you graduate, the revenue sharing component might look different over time."
In other words, a player's pay is flexible from year to year. As far as how they get their money, it's 2025, they get a Venmo account.
Fans and media alike are interested in knowing how much each player makes. Goetz does not want that to be public knowledge.
"It changes fan behavior," she said. "Primarily, it's that. There's a bit of an expectations game. It changes the narrative when it is not a positive one. It can get very personal and maybe cross the line. For the most part, fans do a great job, but there is a section that crosses the line, and we see the impact of that from a mental health standpoint."
This massive change in how players are paid could level the playing field. The past few years, third-party groups known as collectives could strike name, image and likeness business deals for athletes and offer whatever amount they could come up with. Big money schools with richer boosters had the advantage of much higher payrolls than Iowa. NIL served as a recruiting tool, which was not the intended purpose.
Now, under the new revenue-sharing plan, the role of collectives is in question. Businesses can still offer NIL deals to student athletes, but they have to be approved by the clearing house, which gets to decide if the deal is for a valid business purpose and for the appropriate range of compensation paid to similarly situated individuals. Will this reel in massive outside NIL deals and bring the team payrolls for all the major conference schools closer together? Or will the top collectives challenge the new enforcement, or find other ways to still funnel millions to lots of players?
"It doesn't mean everything is equal, to your point about brands and the opportunity to do above-the-cap NIL deals differently at different places. But I do think most people want structure. If you can get those rules in place and if your enforcement capabilities do what they're supposed to do, I do think it's a step in the right direction. Anything that preserves college athletics, the opportunity for all of these young men and women to have the same experience I did, at all kinds of levels, that's a great thing. Because of that, we got to get it right," Goetz said.
