The Week That Was (and Could Be) Are Big for Penn State Athletics

It was a big week for Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics.

As if anyone noticed.

And an even bigger one may be on the horizon.

Last Monday, the website AthleticDirectorU.com published a ranking of Big Ten Conference athletic departments as part of its Athletic Department Power Index series. Penn State was ranked No. 4 among the 14 schools, with an average score of 4.74 across eight key categories.

Ohio State was ranked No. 1, with an average score of 5.84, with the top mark of “1” in six categories. Michigan (5.64 – with all 2’s and one 3) was second, followed by Wisconsin (5.26). After Penn State were Michigan State (4.57), Iowa (4.40) Nebraska (4.15) and Minnesota (4.13).

Interesting side nugget:

The publisher and co-founder of AthleticDirectorU.com is Jason Belzer.

His name may sound vaguely familiar. Belzer is the CEO and co-founder of Student Athlete NIL, which is the back shop for-profit company that runs the day-to-day operations of the Success With Honor collective agency, which put on an autograph session featuring a dozen current PSU athletes that it says drew over 500 fans over this past Blue-White weekend.

Clearly, Jason Belzer is a name Penn State sports fans should know – and will be hearing a lot of, as Success With Honor continues making deals with current Penn State athletes. Belzer has a pair of undergrad degrees and his law degree from Rutgers, as well as an MBA from the University of Illinois.

He certainly has his fingers on the pulse of Penn State athletes as well as the folks who run the athletic departments throughout the Big Ten.

To produce its Big Ten Power Index ratings, his site says it interviewed dozens of ADs and executive-level administrators who are in the Big Ten or know it well, to “provide detailed insights about the potential for success at each school.”

In addition, the site issued this caveat about the rankings:

“It’s imperative to note the Athletic Department Power Index is not intended or developed to analyze the performance or potential of the current Athletic Director at the respective institutions. Rather it is an assessment of the opportunity generally through the eyes of both peers and aspirants to the position were it to become available.”

• • •

Guess what? Penn State’s athletic director position is available.

Though it may be filled. Soon. Maybe very soon.

Reports both external and internal over the past week – see, I told you last week was a big week — indicate that incoming Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi may name the successor to current AD Sandy Barbour within the next week or so. The same reports indicate that the leading candidate is a sitting AD who is at a Power 5 school. (I’m thinking this may also pertain to schools that have committed to joining a Power 5 conference, but aren’t there yet.)

That’s fast.

Barbour was hired in July 2014.

She signed a contract extension on Feb. 22, 2019, which was to take her to Aug. 31, 2023.

Then, Barbour announced her retirement on March 16, 2022 – 21 months before the end of her deal.

Barbour met with the press on March 21.

Bendapudi was announced as chair of the search committee, with the aid of industry head-hunter TurnkeyZRG, on March 29.

A search committee was named on April 13.

Penn State’s new president seems to be a decisive leader who takes action. How can you not like that? (Her official start date of May 10 is still 17 days away.)

• • •

About Penn State and that Big Ten Power Index:

Penn State scored best – a No. 3 ranking among the 14 Big Ten athletic programs – in three areas: donor support, football success and non-revenue sports success. That’s a darn good troika. Penn State ranked No. 4 in brand perception, No. 5 in facilities and No. 6 in quality of  life.

Its perceived downfalls? Penn State ranked No. 9 in institutional alignment and No. 12 in men’s basketball success. Bendapudi is quickly moving on addressing the former and Micah Shrewsberry – hired by Barbour – has already made great strides in fixing the latter.

Penn State football coach James Franklin talks very often about “alignment,” the context of which is the Board of Trustees, the university president, the athletic director and the head football coach being on the same page. The Big Ten Power Index ranked Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin 1-2-3 in institutional alignment.

• • •

Additional rankings involving Penn State athletics were also released last week. Bigger, more important, non-subjective rankings than the Power Index.

On Thursday, the final winter standings for The Learfield Directors’ Cup were posted. The Directors’ Cup is a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and USA Today to recognize the most successful broad-based athletic programs in college sports. Points are awarded based on each institution’s finish in NCAA championships and final national polls.

Penn State, for instance, received 100 points – the highest possible total for a single sport – on the strength of the national championship won by Cael Sanderson’s wrestling squad. (Scoring that underscores the importance of Barbour’s successor getting Sanderson signed to a new contract.)

Admirably, Penn State was ranked fifth after the fall 2021 rankings by virtue of point-scoring performances by seven different Penn State teams – mostly of the non-revenue variety for which the Big Ten Power Index so justifiably lauded Penn State.

The latest Directors’ Cup rankings, released last week, have Penn State No. 18 nationally, despite the success of Cael & Co. Four Big Ten schools are ranked in the Top 11 nationally after the winter rankings – No. 1 Michigan, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 7 Wisconsin and No. 11 Minnesota. One spot below Penn State, at No. 18, is Ole Miss.

In 2021-22, point-scoring teams for Penn State have been: wrestling (100 points), fencing (72), women’s soccer (64), field hockey (53), men’s soccer (50), women’s volleyball (50), men’s gymnastics (32.5), men’s cross-country (29), women’s cross country (27) and football (25).

Penn State’s downward trajectory in the standings from No. 5 to No. 18, despite the success of Nittany Lion wrestling, is not a good sign. In 2020-21, Penn State was No. 17 after the fall sports season, No. 22 after the winter sports season and No. 39 in the final standings.

The 39^th was the worst finish by Penn State athletics as a whole since at least 2002-03 (the earliest year for which standings are online). Until last sports season, Penn State had averaged a No. 13 finish nationally for the previous 18 seasons, with a No. 5 national finish as recently as 2013-14.

Final Directors’ Cup rankings will be released by July 5. By then, Penn State will have a new director of athletics – with a long to-do list, no doubt, in hand from one President Bendapudi.