James Franklin goes in depth on Penn State’s need to compete in the NIL space

James Franklin made it plain and clear when speaking to reporters toward the tail end of spring practice: Penn State must be competitive in the NIL space to be among the best programs in college football. And after a few years of lagging behind, Franklin is happy to see the Nittany Lions are now working to play catch-up.

With a trio of NIL collectives now at work and a more accepting stance institutionally, Franklin is happy with where things are headed. But with Penn State just getting to where some other schools were a year or two ago, Franklin also knows bridging the gulf isn’t an overnight fix.

“Yeah we still got a ton of work to do. We started out the 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 start in basically a three-year model, I think it’s pretty obvious. But what I’ve been doing, instead of talking to you guys about it, we’ve been working to try and solve it. As much as we possibly can, by going out and educating the fanbase and the donors about what we’re truly competing against,” Franklin said.

Being competitive in NIL is not a negotiable for Franklin.

To be on par with national title contenders, Penn State has to operate like them, Franklin said. That means swanky facilities, expansive coaching and training staffs and a concerted push to get players paid via NIL.

“I don’t think it really should be a discussion. I don’t think it really can be a discussion because, when you’re Penn State, and you’re in the Big Ten, the reality is if you choose and want to compete at the very highest level — you guys have heard me say this before — you can’t pick and choose what you’re going to compete in. I think the other thing is, you guys remember, this discussion is very similar to a discussion we had 10 years ago when I was talking about facilities and people were looking at me like I was crazy,” Franklin said.

Franklin cautioned, too, that until Penn State gets various NIL initiatives to a satisfactory, sustainable place, the lack of strong and unified NIL programs becomes a weakness.

If Penn State wants to be a perennial Top 10 team and vying for national championships, Franklin doesn’t think NIL — or anything — can be skimped on.

“So, the reality is, as you guys have heard me before, whether it’s facility, whether it’s staff size, whether it’s alignment, whether it’s NIL, whether it’s all these things, if you truly want to compete at the highest level then you can’t say ‘We’re going to be competitive in these three areas and not in this one.’ Where we are, as a Top 10 program, those areas that you are behind become glaring, obvious issues to people that really understand and study college football and college athletics,” Franklin said.