Buy the Right Brand of Bacon in January and 100% Goes to Gophers NIL Fund

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Syndication: The Des Moines Register
Lily Smith/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Minnesota Gophers NIL fund is in an incredibly different place on New Year’s Day 2024 than one year ago, when the calendar flipped to 2023. How? Much of the credit goes to their still relatively unknown official Name, Image and Likeness collective, Dinkytown Athletes (DinkytownAthletes.com).

DTA’s ability to play catch up over the last 12-15 months is paying dividends for Gopher athletics, quite literally. They’ve struck deals with all sorts of Minnesota-based companies, bringing in NIL contributions via everything from merchandise featuring student athletes, to a new beer called Duck Duck beer. They’ve also helped to collect “a substantive” amount with private booster donations, behind the scenes.

Related: Top In-State 2024 Recruit Koi Perich Officially Signs with Gophers

Dinkytown Athletes + Thousand Hills Meats = 100% Gophers NIL Fund

And over the weekend, Dinkytown Athletes announced yet another genius partnership and promotion, this time with Thousand Hills Meats. Running for the entire month of January, 100% of all Thousand Hills bacon bought at participating co-op grocery stores (listed below) will go straight to the University of Minnesota’s NIL fund.

Lakewinds Food Co-op

  • Chanhassen – 435 Pond Promenade
  • Richfield – 6420 Lyndale Ave S
  • Minnetonka – 17501 Minnetonka Blvd

Mississippi Market Co-op

  • St. Paul – 1500 West 7th St
  • St. Paul – 622 Selby Ave
  • St. Paul – 740 East 7th St

Wedge Co-op

  • Minneapolis – 2105 Lyndale Ave S
  • Minneapolis – 3815 Sunnyside Ave

Related: Under PJ Fleck, Gophers Will Never Lack Motivation

Whole Foods

  • Duluth – 610 E 4th St
  • Duluth – 4426 Grand Ave

Spiral Food Co-op

  • Hastings – 1250 S Frontage Rd

Cook County Food Co-op

  • Grand Marais – 20 E 1st St

Valley Natural Foods

  • Burnsville – 13750 County Road 11

That’s right. If you need bacon and you live in Duluth, Hastings, Grand Marais or just about anywhere in the Twin Cities, you can choose one of these local co-ops near you and every penny spent goes straight to the Minnesota Gophers NIL fund. How incredible is that?

Another brilliant way to bring in NIL

How many Gopher football fan families consume bacon? Imagine if 25% of those families bought all of their bacon for the month of January (plus a few extra pounds for the freezer) from one of these stores. That’s a lot of cash for keeping and bringing in talent.

This is just the latest brilliant NIL fundraising idea hatched and executed by Dinkytown Athletes, which has completely changed the Name, Image and Likeness game for the Minnesota Gophers.

Read all of our Minnesota Gophers football coverage

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