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James Franklin: Penn State Still Has a 'Ton of Work to Do' on NIL
Penn State begins Year 3 of its NIL initiative with a trip to the beach. In late July, coach James Franklin and a group of high-profile players, past and present, will attend a big-donor NIL event at the Avalon Yacht Club in New Jersey. Among those attending are current stars Drew Allar, Nicholas Singleton and Abdul Carter and All-Americans LaVar Arrington, Brandon Short and Michael Mauti. Ticket packages start at $2,000.
The NIL event will serve as both fundraiser and educational platform, as Penn State seeks to introduce more fans to the concept that NIL is a mandatory piece of college football. Andy Frank, Penn State's general manager of personnel and recruitment, made the point on Franklin's behalf recently.
"We've tried to educate the fan base, educate the supporters, and that’s actually a big piece of the education," Frank said in early June. "... We’ve been conditioned as a fan base, which is rightfully so, that in the history of college football, money going to players was a bad thing. That’s no longer the case, that’s no longer wrong, and educating people on that is important in understanding the value for the players, this university and this town."
"... Sean Clifford started and sold a company. That's something that, when he got [to Penn State], wasn't an option. and he's going to be a different citizen because of that. It is the education piece, it is all those things, but money’s good too."
NIL in Pennsylvania celebrated its second anniversary July 1, yet Penn State says it's still playing catch-up. Franklin recently conducted an interview with Adam Breneman, the former Penn State tight end turned college football media entrepreneur, in which he continued to make that point. Penn State has covered plenty of ground in the past year, notably by merging its leading two NIL collectives, but still lags behind its chief competitors. According to On3, the Lions rank 14th nationally behind, of course, Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State but also behind LSU, Oregon, USC, Tennessee and Florida.
Franklin has noted Penn State's lagging performance for a while but did so acutely this past spring, when he tied Penn State's lagging NIL initiatives to former basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry's departure to Notre Dame.
"I think we obviously just saw some decisions that weren’t completely made [because of NIL and other issues] in the basketball program, but that was a big part of it," Franklin said. "We know that."
Franklin suggested that Penn State's initial strategy left the athletic department, and football team, two years behind its competitors. While other programs had NIL collectives built and funded around them to retain players and target recruits, Penn State approached NIL a different way, Franklin said. One that, the head coach said, set back Penn State's competitive efforts. In early July, Franklin reiterated his NIL pitch on social media, saying, "We need EVERYONE locked in on being 1-0 in the NIL race."
"We've still got a ton of work to do," Franklin said. "We started out that first couple years where we said we were going to teach student-athletes how to be entrepreneurs. That was our NIL model. So we were two years behind everybody else.
"I think over the last year we've made significant progress. But if you give somebody a two-year head start in a basically three-year model, I think it's [the result] pretty obvious."
Penn State has had a challenging time with NIL, which reached a flashpoint when Shrewsberry left for Notre Dame after two seasons. Franklin didn't sound pleased with that. Though Shrewsberry's decision didn't center primarily on NIL, it "was a big part of it," as Franklin suggested, especially considering that the former basketball ranked Penn State's basketball NIL funding at "13th or 14th" in the Big Ten.
In addition, Penn State trustee Brandon Short said that NIL had become a trustee issue, though that has been mitigated with the merger of Success With Honor and Lions Legacy Club, Penn State's former collectives. Franklin said Penn State has regained some footing in the NIL marketplace through targeted outreach, in which Franklin has participated. That includes the upcoming NIL benefit in Avalon.
"What I’ve been doing, instead of talking to [the media] about it, is we’ve been working to try to solve it as much as we possibly can by going out and educating the fan base and the donors about what we’re truly competing against," Franklin said.
Penn State is competing against highly funded NIL programs with strong collectives, impact donors or both. Penn State's first NIL collective, Success With Honor, spent its inaugural year under another company's umbrella and dedicated to supporting all 31 of the athletic department's varsity programs. A football-only collective, Lions Legacy Club, emerged to support Franklin's program specifically. Mauti, who works with Lions Legacy Club, made clear in an interview last year how importantly he viewed Penn State's NIL growth by relating it to the 2012 NCAA sanctions his team faced.
"For the first time in college football history, overnight any of us could leave and go to another school and play immediately. I feel those underlying themes here now," Mauti said. "... I’m not sure our fan base really appreciates the gravity of what's going on. We are at risk of losing players. It is code red for us. That's why I think it's important to understand what we're doing."
RELATED: How Penn State's Nicholas Singleton is thriving in NIL
Now operating together as Happy Valley United, the collectives joined forces to prioritize football and basketball while still supporting the other 29 varsity programs. Patrick Kraft, Penn State's athletic director, called the merger "imperative" for the future of athletics at Penn State.
"When we first got started, [NIL] was heavily focused on the education piece," Frank said. "But if we’re being realistic, in looking at the landscape out there, we’ve also got to have the money to be able to attract players."
In his interview with Breneman, Franklin reiterated that Penn State was not "bold and aggressive" during the first year of NIL. Penn State has made up ground in the past year but continues to chase programs with better funding. Franklin said Penn State remains two years behind some of those schools. "I don't care what industry you're in, when the rules change, you'd better adapt quickly, and we didn't do that," Franklin told Breneman.
Frank backed the head coach's point, saying Penn State will continue to recruit and retain talent through its core beliefs: player education and development, competing for championships, NFL preparation and a family atmosphere. Adding a sound NIL program to those elements would be attractive as well.
"It's an area we’re working really, really hard in. an area we were probably behind to start with and are doing our best right now to catch up," Frank said. "I think we’ve made a lot of progress and we’re continuing to make progress. As time goes on, hopefully we’ll be in a position where it can be a strength for us. ... Eventually, we’d like to be in a position where it can push a kid over the top."
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