Penn State Football: James Franklin Not Happy with NIL Progress

James Franklin is not happy where Penn State athletics is these days with helping his players with endorsement opportunities with their Name Image and Likeness.

It’s not that Penn State has done nill with NIL, which at eight months old is still in its infancy.

In fact, Penn State just announced a deal with Fanatics last week that will allow Nittany Lion football players to profit off of sales of their jerseys.

But Franklin wants Penn State to do more — especially in comparison to such schools as Ohio State, the University of Texas and Grambling. Knowing that Franklin is huge into benchmarking, I specifically brought up those three schools by way of comparison when I asked Franklin at his Zoom presser last week if he thought Penn State’s NIL progress was satisfactory.

In his response, James didn’t say, “I told you so.” Though he kinda did.

“This is something that we’ve been pushing on and talking about for two years in the football building,” Franklin said on Wednesday.

“This was brought up two years ago — that we needed to have a plan and be aggressive and be bold with this area. Compared to the programs that you have mentioned, we’re not there yet.”

Ohio State, especially, had to be a prickly mention. Not only have the Buckeyes beaten Franklin’s Nittany Lions seven out of eight times on the field since 2014, they are No. 1 in the country in NIL opportunities for their athletes.

According to Ohio State and NIL industry leader Opendorse, Ohio State athletes have participated in a combined 608 name, imagine and likeness opportunities for a total compensation value of $2.98 million since NIL laws first went into effect on July 1, 2021.

That puts Ohio State No. 1 in all three categories.

There’s more: Ohio State just announced that an internal athletics advisory team will help connect its athletes to deals. Ohio State sports administrators will work directly with brands and companies to help their athletes with NIL opportunities, a crucial internal assist that was not allowed by Ohio State’s original NIL guidelines.

At the University of Texas, beginning in August 2022 every Longhorns’ offensive lineman on scholarship will get $50,000 annually for use of their name, image and likeness to support charitable causes. The initiative is called “The Pancake Factory” and is administered by a nonprofit group called Horns with Heart — and, very likely, a group with long pockets.

(Absent such a war chest, this makes Franklin’s recent run of verbal commitments by big-time high school O-linemen recruits even more impressive.)

Then there’s Grambling State University, an HBCU with deep college football roots. Pete Thamel, the new college football “insider” for ESPN, recently reported that Grambling is putting together an NIL deal that will give each and every one of its athletes an annual income.

WHAT ABOUT PENN STATE?

Can Penn State, under VP for intercollegiate athletics Sandy Barbour, do a deal like Grambling’s?

Not likely, according to Pennsylvania’s “Fair Pay to Play Bill” (Senate Bill 381; you can read it here), which went into effect on July 1, 2021. It states, in part:

A college student athlete may earn compensation for the use of the college student athlete’s name, image or likeness under this article. The compensation shall be commensurate with the market value of the student athlete’s name, image or likeness. The compensation may not be provided in exchange, in whole or in part, for a current or prospective student athlete to attend, participate or perform at a particular institution of higher education.

It’s not that Penn State athletics isn’t making an effort with NIL. They brought in Chima Okoli, a two-year starter at offensive tackle for the Nittany Lions, a smart and savvy attorney and Penn State’s rep on the Big Ten Advisory Committee, to help get Penn State’s NIL response up-and-running.

Okoli, whose short-term consulting stint with PSU athletics is completed, knows his stuff. He’s taught and will be teaching classes on NIL at Penn State, Wake Forest, Boston College and Notre Dame this year.

Michael Hazel, Franklin’s former right-hand man and ex-director of football administration for PSU football, handled many of football’s NIL details when he was at Penn State. But, he left Lasch for a promotion as Brent Pry’s chief of staff with Virginia Tech football.

Penn State athletics does have what it calls its STATEment program, which is largely an educational initiative. According to Penn State, “STATEment’s educational focus will be on brand building, social media responsibility, financial literacy, professionalism, media training, interest and values assessment, diversity and inclusion, and alumni and industry relationships.”

But so far, no Penn State football player has made a huge splash with NIL deals. The Clifford brothers (QB Sean and WR Liam) do have their own training app. Sean has done autograph sessions, a tailgate with Jahan Dotson and work on behalf of AllState. To his credit — which underscores his own brand as a veteran player with strong values — Cliff The Elder even donated $5,000 of his NIL cash to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Centre County.

Clifford’s current valuation for NIL deals is about $172,000, ranking him No. 45 in college football, according to college sports website On3.com. In On3’s original rankings, Penn State wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith was No. 90, with a valuation of $111,000. (Ohio State QB CJ Stroud has a valuation of $1.1 million, ranking him No. 2 behind Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, who is listed at $1.9 million.)

Other Nittany Lions have had deals with car dealers, restaurants and T-shirt purveyors. But none have been in the Cliff territory.

“I’d love to see us being on the front end and being the leader nationally in this these areas,” Franklin said. “But, but we’re not there yet. That’s clear. And that’s obvious. We have some work to do. But I would I’d love to see us like the schools you mentioned — that we are 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.”

READY TO MOVE?

Franklin has two new, seemingly very marketable young stars, with the arrival of running back Nicholas Singleton and quarterback Drew Allar – both five-stars.

Singleton was the No. 1 high school running back in the country and the 2021-22 Gatorade National Football Player of the Year. (He could be due a deal: UConn basketball’s Paige Bueckers and Jackson State football’s Shedeur have signed NIL agreements with Gatorade, which has 68% of the U.S. sports drink market and grossed $20 billion last year.) Allar is ranked among the top 5 high school quarterbacks in the country.

Franklin frequently touts the massive Penn State alumni base as a big asset in the Nittany NIL World. It does provide a big, ready-made niche audience that can readily identify with a Clifford or a Singleton. Delivering eyeballs is important.

Penn State does have plenty of those — nearly 1.5 million, give or take. The university has conferred over 800,000 degrees. It has about 710,000 living alumni, with nearly 400,000 in Pennsylvania alone. The Penn State Alumni Association, with over 170,000 dues-paying members, is among the largest and most dynamic organizations of its kind.

“I do think we have an unbelievable opportunity at Penn State with our alumni base and our brand and our national reputation,” Franklin said. “I think we have tremendous opportunities with the education that our young men get and the foundation that our men and women leave Penn State with and the number of really, really successful alumni that we have. We have to take advantage of that. And we have to be bold and we have to be aggressive and we have to embrace it.”

But for Penn State to match the big-Buck(eyes) prowess of Ohio State, it will have to tap into the wallets of some of those alumni as sponsors and deal-makers with products, services and/or charities in need of endorsers who aligned with the Penn State brand. These are the “really, really successful alumni” to whom Franklin refers.

Franklin also frequently talks about his excellent relationship with the Penn State Board of Trustees. And that extends to the top, with BOT president Matt Schuyler.

In the vast universe of Penn State alumni, Schuyler knows as much about branding as anyone.

A 1987 accounting graduate of Penn State, Schuyler was a Lion Ambassador as an undergraduate. He got his MBA at Michigan, then has worked for such American household names as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cisco, Capital One and now Hilton. He is Chief Brand Officer at Hilton, and as such – according to his LinkedIn profile — “is responsible for positioning the company’s portfolio of 18 world-class brands across all 6,400 properties globally.”

To be Franklin with you, picking Schuyler’s brain for a few blue (and white) sky ideas may be a good idea— if CJF hasn’t done some of that NIL nit-picking already.