EQUIPE WELCOMES IOWA TO THE FAMILY

The University of Iowa is officially joining the Equipe family to take full control of their customer data universe. The Hawkeye athletic department will use Equipe to unify fragmented touchpoints across ticketing, merchandise, and donations into clean Golden Records, turning data into a real-time revenue engine for the entire front office.

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A NEW ERA DEMAND A NEW DATA FOUNDATION

College athletics is being rebuilt in real time. Revenue sharing, NIL, the transfer portal, and expanded media rights have transformed what used to be a predictable operational cadence into something closer to professional sports — with the commercial expectations to match. Athletic departments are now expected to function like sophisticated businesses: forecasting revenue, segmenting audiences, personalizing outreach, and justifying every marketing dollar.

The problem is that most departments are trying to do this on infrastructure built for a different era. Ticketing systems don't talk to donor databases. Merchandise data lives with a third-party licensee. Email marketing platforms hold one version of a fan while the CRM holds another. Staff spend more time wrangling spreadsheets than acting on insights, and by the time a question gets answered, the window to act has often closed.

The departments that will thrive in this new environment are the ones that treat fan data as core infrastructure — not an afterthought. Iowa is making that move now.

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WHY THE HAWKEYES CHOSE EQUIPE

Iowa's leadership recognized that unlocking the value of their fan base required more than another point solution. It required a data foundation. One that could consolidate data from every system the department already uses, resolve identity across those systems, and make the resulting customer view accessible to anyone on staff without a data science degree.

Joe Parker, Deputy Athletic Director and COO, highlights why this partnership is a game-changer for the Hawkeyes:

"We partnered with Equipe to move past the frustration of siloed systems and manual workflows. This platform empowers our staff to build precise audiences and act on fan insights in minutes, ensuring the Hawkeye experience is personalized and high-utility for every supporter."

That shift, from manual workflows to minutes, is the operational unlock. When a ticketing rep can build a targeted audience without filing a request with IT, when a fundraiser can see a donor's full engagement history without pulling five reports, when a marketer can test a campaign idea before the end of the week instead of the end of the quarter, the entire department moves faster.

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WHAT THIS MEAN FOR HAWKEYE FANS

The fan experience is the real beneficiary of a clean data foundation. When Iowa knows who its supporters are across every interaction — the season ticket holder who also donates, the merchandise buyer who's attended three games this year, the student who bought a single-game ticket and might become a lifelong fan — every communication can be more relevant and every offer more useful.

That's the Hawkeye experience Joe Parker is describing: personalized, high-utility, and built on a complete picture of each supporter rather than a fragmented guess.

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BUILDING ON MOMENTUM

Iowa joins a growing roster of leading collegiate athletic departments using Equipe to modernize their front office, including the University of Texas and the University of South Carolina. Each of these programs is tackling the same fundamental challenge — turning fragmented fan data into a strategic asset — and each is helping shape what the next generation of college athletics operations looks like.

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WHAT'S NEXT 

Welcome to the team, Iowa. We're ready to help you turn chaos into clarity and keep the Hawkeyes winning on and off the field.

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ABOUT EQUIPE

Equipe is a Customer Data Platform (CDP) built for sports organizations. The company helps teams connect, clean, and activate their fan and customer data — turning fragmented information from ticketing, donor, merchandise, marketing, and media systems into a single source of truth that any team member can act on. Founded in 2024 by Nick Benson and Sajan Gutta and based in Los Angeles, California, Equipe is backed by Game Changers Ventures and works with leading college athletic departments including the University of Texas, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Iowa.

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ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

The University of Iowa is among the top public research institutions in the nation — offering a world-class education in over 200 areas of study to more than 32,000 students. From the most prestigious creative writing program in the United States, to a nationally recognized academic medical center, our balanced excellence in the arts and sciences encourages innovation and exploration across the disciplines.

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