It's been a busy month for the Iowa Pork Producers Association as they are in the thick of their annual "Best Pork Tenderloin Contest" and just agreed to 19 significant NIL (name, image, likeness) deals with Iowa State University student-athletes.

The athletes with whom they partnered all participated in the "Purchase Moore Hamann Bacon" video tryouts. This subsequent NIL deal sees each athlete getting paid by Iowa Pork for helping them encourage consumers to purchase more ham, bacon, and other pork products, per a press release from Iowa Pork.

More than a dozen of the recipients are part of the Iowa State Cyclone football team, who are having a hell of a year. Ranked 9th in the country in the weekly AP Top 25, they are 6-0, while the Iowa State women's basketball team is projected to finish second in the Big 12 Conference this year:

We are thrilled to partner with these 19 exceptional student-athletes at Iowa State University to help us promote the pork industry. Purchase Moore Hamann Bacon’ has been a very popular and successful initiative for us, and we’ve had a lot of fun seeing what new names we could try to fit into the promotion through our series of tryout videos. We’re thankful to all the Cyclones who participated, and to everyone who was inspired to purchase more ham, bacon and other pork products! - Matt Gent, a pig farmer from Wellman, Iowa and president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, per Iowa Pork's press release

Iowa Pork is going above and beyond with this NIL deal too. They are donating $1,000 worth of pork to each participant's food bank/pantry of choice, on top of providing an additional $16,000 worth of pork to the Iowa Food Bank Association.

In total, that's $35,000 worth of pork, which amounts to nearly 50,000 servings to fight food insecurity in Iowa as well as eight other states.

Below is a list of all 19 players who agreed to NIL deals with Iowa Pork and the food bank/pantry they chose to support:

  • Food Bank of the Rockies in Denver, Colo., in the name of Myles Purchase
  • Food Bank of Iowa in Des Moines, Iowa, in the name of Tyler Moore
  • Interfaith Outreach & Community Partners in Plymouth, Minn., in the name of Tommy Hamann
  • Lake Mills Food Shelf in Lake Mills, Iowa, in the name of Caleb Bacon
  • Food Bank for the Heartland in Omaha, Neb., in the name of Alec Cook
  • Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, in the name of Zach Lovett
  • Food Bank of Iowa, in Des Moines, Iowa, in the name of Abu Sama III
  • St. Theresa Catholic Church Food Bank, in Des Moines, Iowa, in the name of Isaiah Seymour
  • Mahomet Helping Hands Food Pantry in Mahomet, Ill., in the name of Wyatt Bohm
  • Loving Hearts Outreach Food Pantry in Washington, Mo., in the name of Trevor Buhr
  • Second Harvest Heartland Food Bank in Brooklyn Park, Minn., in the name of Stevo Klotz
  • River Bend Food Bank in Davenport, Iowa, in the name of Xavier Hamilton
  • Kossuth County Food Pantry in Algona, Iowa, in the name of Audi Crooks
  • First Church United Food Pantry in West Liberty, Iowa, in the name of Kelsey Joens
  • Derby Community Food Pantry in Derby, Kan., in the name of Addy Brown
  • Denton Community Food Center in Denton, Texas, in the name of Alisa Williams
  • Cubbie’s Cupboard in Nevada, Iowa, in the name of Carson Rhodes
  • Food Equality Initiative in Lenexa, Kan., in the name of Domonique Orange
  • Lake Mills Food Shelf in Lake Mills, Iowa, in the name of Logan Bacon

Iowa Pork worked with the We Will Collective, a nonprofit that supports Cyclone student-athletes and their contributions to community endeavors, to organize the participation in the Iowa Pork video series (embedded above) and donated $10,000 for their assistance, per the press release.

Photo Credit: Iowa Pork
Photo Credit: Iowa Pork
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An Iowa State freshman walk-on, fittingly named Logan Bacon, was the final student-athlete to participate in the tryout video. The Lake Mills, IA native wheeled-in a wheelbarrow full of bacon and stated, "Because you can never have too much bacon!" More fittingly, Logan's brother, Caleb Bacon, was also a member of the first "Purchase Moore Hamann Bacon" campaign.

Logan Bacon joined Myles Purchase, Tyler Moore, Tommy Hamann (the four comprising the name of the campaign), Caleb Bacon, Alec Cook, and Zach Lovett in the promotion that launched last September and went viral. It was also named the Best NIL Deal of 2023 by the Sports Business Journal.

Iowa Pork has been having a typically busy October, being that it's National Pork Month. Hy-Vee grocery stores have been promoting the "Purchase Moore Hamann Bacon" initiative in order to encourage consumers to buy more pork products. There's also the "Best Pork Tenderloin" contest, which involves they honoring a restaurant serving the best breaded pork tenderloin in the state.

The five restaurants competing for the title of "Best Pork Tenderloin in Iowa" are:

The Market at the Tap was also one of the 10 finalists for the Iowa Beef Industry Council and the Iowa Cattlemen's Association's 15th annual Iowa's Best Burger contest, per The Des Moines Register.

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Read more about the Iowa Pork Producers Association inking NIL deals with 19 Iowa State student-athletes on Pork Business' website.

READ MORE ABOUT IOWA PORK'S "BEST PORK TENDERLOIN CONTEST" HERE.

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