James Franklin details Penn State's approach to NIL

Recently Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin sat down with one of his former players Adam Breneman, host of Up Next. The former Penn State tight end picked his former head coach’s brain on many topics surrounding the program. One of the things Breneman wanted to know more about was how Penn State approached NIL. And according to Franklin, there is a bit of uniqueness to how the Nittany Lions do things.

“One of the things that’s really powerful that a lot of people don’t know about Penn State is all of the Commonwealth campuses across the state of Pennsylvania that used to be feeder institutions for the university,” said Franklin. “It is powerful, and none of them have football. So, they’re all Penn State football fans. You’re talking about 750,000 living alumni. There is power in those numbers and with the brand. But we got to tap into it.”

“It is a major fit shift to change your mind to say, ‘You’re telling me, now, we can give players money.’ So getting people on board with that.”

The Nittany Lions find themselves in a unique position with all of their sister schools within the Penn State network not having their own football teams. Unlike other major university chains such as the University of Texas chain, where the Longhorns sister campuses, UTSA, UTEP, and UTRGV all have Division I programs of their own. With Penn State’s system being set up the way it is, it’s likely that all alumni within the system to be huge supporters of the main campus’s football program.

Another step in the right direction for the Nittany Lions is their expanded use of their NIL system. It took Penn State some time to adjust to the rules, but since then, they have been running full steam ahead. But Franklin believes that there is more that can be done.

“The other thing is, for the first two years, we weren’t bold and aggressive with that rule. And I don’t care what industry you’re in; when the rules change, you better adapt, and you better adapt quickly. And we didn’t do that. So I would say two years ago, we were way behind; three years ago, we were way behind. In the last year, we’re starting to make some significant progress.

“I think Pat Kraft has recognized that (and) has done a great job of going out and educating our people. That’s what we’re doing as a football program as well. But we need all of the Penn Staters worldwide to understand this is where we’re at, and if all 750,000 alumni would just do something, there’s tremendous power in that.”

With only one major football program within the Penn State University system, the Nittany Lions get the Lion’s share of NIL compensation in that area. That is a huge advantage when it comes to recruiting and what they have to offer recruits. And if the rest of the alumni hear Franklin’s call, the Penn State NIL pool could get even bigger.