‘We’ve got to be the leader,’ Penn State’s AD says of NIL. What’s standing in the way?
Pat Kraft leaned forward in his seat, tapping his hand against a table as he spoke. There was excitement in his voice as he spoke to the Centre Daily Times, rattling off what his new athletic department was capable of doing. Kraft, who began his role as Penn State’s athletic director this summer, firmly believes the university should be competing in every facet of every sport.
That includes a new aspect that came into play during the summer of 2021 — athletes profiting off of their name, image and likeness (NIL).
The addition of NIL has Kraft excited, because he knows Penn State has the resources to be as successful as any school in that space.
“Where I look at it and put us above most of our peers, is we are Penn State,” Kraft told the CDT. “You’ve got 750,000 alums. You have an incredibly engaged community. It gives us so much more opportunity than 99% of the schools.”
That alumni network provides a head start for Penn State when it comes to NIL. It’s increasingly important with the department’s football and men’s basketball programs — the sports that have arguably been impacted most by the new rule. The head coaches of those programs have both spoken about the challenges they’re facing with NIL and the need to improve in that area.
The department has plenty of steps to take to reach the gold standard of NIL that the coaches want to reach — where athletes can be recruited and retained at the highest level to help build the best programs in the country.
The impact of NIL
NIL has become an increasingly important issue in the world of college athletics, thanks in part to how it has impacted football and men’s basketball programs. While many Olympic sport athletes have taken advantage of NIL and utilized their social media followings to grow their own financial worth, that isn’t necessarily how NIL operates within football and men’s basketball.
The new legislation has opened doors for Olympic sport athletes to take advantage of, while in football and men’s basketball it has opened the door for programs to take advantage of it.
That’s changed how athletic departments operate in order to keep their highest revenue sports competitive, including what they raise money for when fundraising.
“You’re used to getting asked for scholarships and bricks and mortar,” Kraft told the CDT. “This is the new scholarships and bricks and mortar.”
That can be a contentious issue among donors. There are plenty who don’t believe in paying college athletes and are beholden to outdated ideals that maintain those athletes should be treated as true amateurs.
Kraft acknowledged that some donors won’t want their money going toward NIL — something he understands and empathizes with — and is not critical of those decisions.
Rather, he diverts their potential help to things that are more in line with the types of donations that schools usually ask for.
“If they’re adamantly against it,” Kraft told the CDT, ”it’s like, I got it. Could you support us in (other things). We have to still raise money for scholarships and other things. We’re not pushing anybody into it.”
The Penn State athletic director has taken on the responsibility of helping the programs grow and that means growing through NIL.
Even with that responsibility, he knows he’s still adjusting.
“I tell my own personal journey, if you will, on it,” Kraft told the CDT. “The first time I saw a tweet (with an athlete signing a million dollar NIL deal), I was happy for the young man. But it was just different.”
Kraft’s adjustment period has been quick, however, as he keeps pressing onward. That will be more important for an athletic department that has two main programs looking to improve. And those programs are led by coaches that know the university has progress to make with regard to NIL.
Where Penn State stands with NIL
For football and basketball, it’s not just about catching up to a standard and maintaining it.
NIL is constantly evolving and how players and programs can — and will — take advantage of it will be much different a year from now, just like it’s much different now than it was a year ago.
Penn State will have to make up ground quickly to catch the best and then try to keep adapting alongside the highest end programs in the country.
So who exactly is Penn State chasing? According to men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry, there’s an entire conference that is doing NIL much better than anyone else.
“I talk to a lot of my associates in the Big Ten, if that’s what you want to call them, fellow coaches,” Shrewsberry said in July. “I feel like a lot of them feel like they’re behind as well. I think everybody is behind the SEC (Southeastern Conference) in terms of what they’re doing on the basketball side and probably on the football side as well. It’s all about figuring it out quickly. ... Like I said, I think everybody in the Big Ten is behind the SEC in terms of what we’re doing. But I’m comfortable where we are, but we can always continue to keep getting better.”
The SEC has long had an advantage in football thanks to the recruiting footprint most of its schools cover. The conference grabbing an even bigger advantage will only do more damage to other conferences like the Big Ten as they try to catch up. It should be no surprise that Alabama and Georgia met in the College Football Playoff National Championship game last year given the talent gap that exists.
Penn State and other Big Ten schools are not on that level currently — and realistically only Ohio State can consistently stand toe-to-toe with schools like Alabama and Georgia from a recruiting standpoint.
Penn State head football coach James Franklin knows that ground needs to be made up with NIL and other areas programs can take advantage of when it comes to competing nationally.
“If we want to be able to sustain it and do it on a consistent level,” Franklin told the CDT in June, “then we have to make sure that our commitment level matches our expectations on a daily basis with those programs that we’re talking about. So the program in this conference as well as the programs nationally that have been able to be a part of that College Football Playoff conversation, I have to be able to bring up staff size, staff salary, facilities, dorms, NIL. All those things have to match up, or be consistent, if we say we’re truly competing. All of it. All of it matters.”
While it’s a necessity to adapt to NIL, that doesn’t necessarily mean Penn State will want players making decisions to sign based solely on their financial viability.
In fact, Shrewsberry and his staff want it to be part of the package, but not the focus of why a player would choose to sign with the men’s basketball program.
“Obviously it’s something that comes up in conversations with recruits,” Penn State men’s basketball associate head coach Adam Fisher told the CDT. “Coach Shrewsberry’s philosophy, we’re focused on more than that. It’s more of talking about players reaching their full potential, putting them in a great spot to play at the next level where you can make a lot of money. ... We find guys in the category that it might come up, but their biggest thing is wanting to be a part of a development program and getting a great education from Penn State and those are the big things.”
That being said, there is still a gap to get across to be fully viable in the world of NIL, even if it isn’t going to be the primary focus in recruiting.
Where does Penn State go from here
There is a vast difference, however, in knowing a gap needs to be bridged and actually bridging that gap. The next logical step then, is asking how Penn State can go from a program that is making progress to one that is making substantial progress.
Answering that question will likely be one of the questions that defines Kraft’s tenure as Penn State’s athletic director.
NIL is going to be a major part of the new world of the increasingly rapidly changing worlds of college football and men’s college basketball because of the roster building impact it can have.
Franklin acknowledged the recruiting component of NIL at Big Ten Media Days and scoffed at the idea of those in charge of implementing changes like NIL not expecting those ramifications. Whether it’s wanted or not, the financial aspect of college athletics is now here and making waves.
Kraft knows the importance of making strides in NIL — something Franklin said he appreciated — and wants to help those who donate understand why it’s so important, much like he did at Boston College.
“You’ve got to have someone communicating,” Kraft told the CDT. “Honestly it comes down to education. Educating people what they can and can’t do. It’s so counter to everything we’ve ever done. Whether it was donors or sponsors, it’s OK to do this. And then it started to pick up (at Boston College). ... That’s where I think we are right now. We’re in this phase in July and once the student-athletes get back, we can really show them how to maximize their opportunities.”
The athletic director inherits a department that has an NIL program, STATEment, launched shortly after NIL was legalized in July 2021 to help educate people on the subject.
That means current student-athletes, recruits, fans and others who want to help with the program can go to the website to find out exactly what it is.
Kraft wants to get to a point where things are even more simple. He wants to be able to show people exactly how Penn State is helping athletes grow their individual brands.
“We have to get to the point where you basically have a brochure,” he told the CDT. “And you say, ‘Hey if you wanna come to Penn State here’s what it is, we’re gonna build a digital studio for you to maximize your social media content, we’re gonna have group licenses so you can make money on shirseys and jerseys, we have a collective that can do other things.’ I think it’s more about the process and how do we get there.”
It will take time for Kraft and his staff to get the athletic department where it wants to be with regards to NIL.
He knows, though, that he has the resources to do it and firmly believes that the Nittany Lions should be at the forefront of the discussion — and others like it.
“We’ve got to be the leader,” Kraft told the CDT. “Penn State has got to be the leader in everything we do. And we were, that’s why I’m so excited to be here. NIL is no different. .... I want us to have a robust NIL program where our kids have every opportunity, more than anyone else in the country, to be successful.”
Now it’s a matter of taking those resources and turning it into something tangible — and taking football and men’s basketball to the next level.
This story was originally published August 10, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
