Penn State announces NIL partnership deal with Fanatics

Starting this fall, Penn State fans can purchase jerseys that have individual players jersey number and name — officially licensed — with a new partnership with Fanatics.

“Excited to be one of the exclusive programs bringing this partnership to our student-athletes & fans,” the Penn State football Twitter account posted Friday morning.

“Player Jerseys: Coming Fall 2022.”

Excited to be one of the exclusive programs bringing this partnership to our student-athletes & fans.

Player Jerseys: Coming Fall 2022 👀#WeAre pic.twitter.com/DfeFogMOjp

— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) February 4, 2022

On Thursday, Fanatics announced an agreement with OneTeam Partners to license and produce jerseys for current college athletes beginning during the 2022 football season. Penn State will be part of that program, according to its Friday announcement.

“The Fanatics jersey program, which will cut across schools and eventually men’s and women’s sports, will give fans the ability to buy the jersey of their favorite college athlete and is exactly the type of thing we can help bring to market,” senior vice president of licensing at OneTeam Partners Malaika Underwood said in the news release. “What we bring on the athlete side layers onto Fanatics’ strong existing partnerships with most major colleges and universities.”

Other schools such as LSU, Oklahoma and Washington were among the rest of the initial groups that will headline Fanatics/OneTeam’s groundbreaking NIL partnership with college athletics.

“For the first time ever, fans will be able to purchase authentic jerseys of their favorite LSU Tigers, and student-athletes will directly benefit from every sale,” LSU athletic director Scott Woodward said. “We cannot wait to see our jerseys on the sidelines and in the stands inside Tiger Stadium next season, and we eagerly anticipate additional player co-branded products for our student-athletes across all sports.”

Penn State head coach James Franklin addressed the ever-changing landscape that is college football during the name, image and likeness era stating that he wants to move toward a pro-NIL approach to coaching and recruiting.

“We have to be bold and we have to be aggressive and we have to embrace it,” Franklin said. “I’d love to see us being on the front end and being the leader nationally in these areas, but we’re not there yet. That’s clear, and that’s obvious. We have some work to do. But yeah, I’d love to see us [be] bold and aggressive in these areas and flexible and when these new rules are put in place, we have to move, and we have to move quickly. There’s no doubt about it.”

With NIL in full swing, only more universities will join this partnership to allowed officially licensed jersey sold to fans throughout the country.