Penn State Athletics
Penn State NIL Collectives Merge to Form Happy Valley United
Penn State's two primary NIL collectives, Success With Honor and Lions Legacy Club, will merge to form a single collective that the athletic department says will "create a clear direction" for all Name, Image and Likeness initiatives at Penn State. The new collective, named Happy Valley United, will serve as Penn State's official NIL collective with separate advisory boards for football, basketball and Olympic sports while seeking to unify the branches that Penn State's NIL programs had become.
In a news release Thursday, Penn State Athletic Director Patrick Kraft called the merger "imperative" for the future of Penn State.
"Both groups have been great supporters of our NIL efforts to date, but this merger was an important step in our ever-changing collegiate athletics landscape," Kraft said in a statement. "It was imperative for these two powerful collectives to join forces to provide a large breadth of NIL opportunities for student-athletes in all 31 of our sports programs to continue to push us forward."
Details on the collective merger and Happy Valley United:
What Is Happy Valley United?
Happy Valley United is Penn State's new NIL collective formed from two previous entities. Success With Honor, Penn State's first NIL collective, supported all 31 of Penn State's athletic teams and secured contracts with athletes from each team. Lions Legacy Club was a football-only collective whose initial founders included former Penn State football players Chris Ganter, Michael Mauti and Ki-Jana Carter. Mauti had served in a business development and advisory role with Lions Legacy Club.
Both collectives partnered with national companies for their operating platforms. Lions Legacy Club partnered with Blueprint Sports, while Success With Honor initially partnered with Student Athlete NIL before becoming an independent collective this spring. Blueprint Sports, founded by Penn State alum Rob Sine, will platform Happy Valley United. The collective will hire a new CEO and staff to oversee operations.
Happy Valley United's Board will include Mark Tonaitti, former CEO of Success With Honor, and SWH board members Ira Lubert, Anthony Misitano and Bob Poole. It also includes B.J. Werzyn, founder and CEO of West Shore Home, and Matt DeSoto, chief operating officer of MITER Brands. In April, West Shore Home and MITER announced a "landmark" seven-figure deal to become presenting sponsors of Lions Legacy Club.
Why Are Penn State's NIL Collectives Merging?
Penn State's NIL efforts had been fractured over the past year, with multiple collectives serving multiple interests. Lions Legacy Club formed to target Penn State football as a primary NIL interest. But coaches thought Penn State had fallen behind its national counterparts. Micah Shrewsberry, Penn State's former men's basketball coach, said in December 2022 that his program lagged behind most of the Big Ten in NIL funding. Penn State football coach James Franklin has said repeatedly over the past year that his program needs stronger NIL funding as well to compete nationally.
"Happy Valley United is a crystal-clear signal that the competition is not within Penn State, but our competition is around the country," Sine said in a statement. "A unified collective combined with dedicated resources, infrastructure, and an impressive team of professionals will deliver on bold, aggressive, and ambitious fundraising needs that will keep Penn State athletics at the pinnacle of college athletics on the gridiron, on the court, and anywhere else you cheer on the Nittany Lions."
As with Success With Honor and Lions Legacy Club, Happy Valley United will offer memberships, tax-deductible contributions and opportunities for businesses to partner with athletes. It now will do so without having competing collectives.
"I am very proud of the work that has been done over the past 18 months by our staff and excited about the future that brings these two groups together to keep Penn-State athletics competitive and maintain the respectable reputation that characterizes our program," Toniatti said in a statement.
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