Where Penn State Football Ranks in College Football's Roster-Budget Race

After firing James Franklin last fall, Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft announced thate the next Penn State football coach would have "elite resources" to operate a team. According to a fascinating new report from The Athletic, Penn State ranks outside the top 20 teams for football budgets.

The Athletic estimated Penn State's 2026 football roster budget at $29-$32 million, tying it with Clemson at No. 21 nationally. The Nittany Lions also ranked seventh in the Big Ten, far behind national leaders Ohio State and Oregon, whose budget estimates ranged from $49-$54 million.

As The Athletic noted in its story, football budgets are difficult to pin down, as administrators, coaches, athletes, agents and other stakeholders are incentivized to overstate or undervalue them. But the Penn State estimate aligns with most offseason valuations, including one provided by Mike Villagrana, executive director of the Penn State NIL collective Happy Valley United, on a recent episode of the BlueWhite Tailgate Pawcast.

No. 14 Penn State, which hosts Buffalo on Saturday in its final non-conference game of the regular season, is 2-0 under first-year coach Matt Campbell. The Nittany Lions have outscored G6 opponents Marshall and Temple by a combined 72-9. Penn State will not play a Power 4 opponent until facing Wisconsin in its Big Ten opener on Sept. 26.

Penn State's football spending has been solid but behind other major programs since the NIL era began in 2021. This year, roster dynamics added another dimension to what Penn State could spend.

Though Penn State coach Matt Campbell had access to about $30 million between revenue sharing and NIL, he faced a unique challenge with the 2026 roster, which had to divide its budget between signing 62 new players and retaining 50 from the 2025 team.

How Penn State budgeted for the 2026 roster

Penn State football general manager Derek Hoodjer speaks to reporters at Beaver Stadium. | Mark Wogenrich/Penn State On SI

Penn State has 62 new players on its roster ths season, 40 of whom the program signed through the transfer portal. Before going to the portal, though, Campbell had to weigh the costs of signing some of the top-line Nittany Lions from the 2025 roster, including linebacker Tony Rojas, linemen Anthony Donkoh and Cooper Cousins, tight end Andrew Rappleyea and cornerbacks Audavion Collins and Daryus Dixson.

Derek Hoodjer, Penn State's general manager, said earlier this year that the first move from a budget perspective was to define who among the returning players fit their program.

"What we really prioritized when we got here was spending a lot of time getting to know the current roster, and we wanted to start with who on the Penn State team fits what we're trying to do from a character perspective, from a football perspective, from what they're looking for," Hoodjer said. "Does it align what we're looking for? And we felt really good about the players that we were able to retain here."

From a budget perspective, Campbell also benefitted by signing 24 transfers from his Iowa State roster. That included some of the team's top players, notably quarterback Rocco Becht, tight end Ben Brahmer, linebacker Kooper Ebel and safeties Jeremiah Cooper and Marcus Neal Jr.

As Villagrana noted on the BlueWhite Tailgate Pawcast, Campbell was able to package those transfers at a discount at Penn State.

"That's a huge thing that I don't think a lot of people think about, but that was big: the culture that [Campbell] had and the relationships he had with those players that transferred," Villagrana said on the podcast. "Because I don't think we could get them if he didn't have [those relationships].

"But now moving forward to next year's salary, we're not going to have that equity with the players anymore. So the number's going to continue to go up until there's some guardrails."

Where does Penn State go from here financially?

Penn State Nittany Lions athletic director Pat Kraft (right) speaks with head coach Matt Campbell (left). — Penn State Nittany Lions athletic director Pat Kraft (right) speaks with head coach Matt Campbell (left) following the game against the Marshall Thundering Herd at Beaver Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Kraft has said publicly that he believes Penn State will be competitive financially in college athletics, in part because of how it has approached revenue generation. Penn State has positioned the $700 million Beaver Stadium renovation as a key financial driver by selling more premium seating options and offering more year-round event opportunities. Kraft also said this summer that Penn State has more than $1 billion in guaranteed future athletics revenue.

"The key is the guaranteed number," Kraft said. "It's the floor. Now we have the opportunity, and we should continue to generate more revenue on top of that. But that gives us a baseline more than most any of our peers."

Campbell said this summer that he's in a "vastly different spot" regarding resources at Penn State than he was at Iowa State.

"At the end of the day, that's an evolution, and that continues to grow as this world around us continues to grow, and we adapt," Campbell said. "But I will say this. I've been really appreciative of the effort and the conversations to be able to continue to keep up and move our program forward as everybody else around us continues to move their programs forward as well."

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