Success with Honor: NIL Collective an Opportunity to Give a Boost to Student-Athletes from All Sports and Backgrounds

This month Penn State won the national wrestling championship (again): another amazing day for a program that has been the model of sustained excellence. It seems like there is nothing that could derail that program on its annual summit climb.

But wrestling, like every other sport, has now entered the world of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). There has been a lot of talk about what NIL means for football and basketball centered on a handful of big-money deals with high-profile players in those sports.

These stories and headlines conjure fan perceptions of greedy football and basketball players getting “pay-to-play” money on top of their full-ride scholarships. For many, those perceptions create resentment.

But what is the broader truth and reach of NIL after football and basketball? How might it impact sports like wrestling and other Olympic sports played by men and women alike?

For the majority of Penn State student-athletes the idea of “pay-to-play” runs the other way. They are paying tuition and housing contracts to be a student and play here. For most of those student-athletes, there are no life-changing seven- or eight-figure pro contracts awaiting them.

Let’s look inside the numbers. Penn State has 858 student-athletes on 31 teams who are awarded a combined 371.4 scholarships, the maximum NCAA number for those sports. (Why 371.4 and not a round number like 372? Because it’s the NCAA).

If disbursed evenly, those scholarships cover just 43.3% of tuition, room, board and books for the average student-athlete. But some student-athletes receive 100% and some receive no aid. Scholarship dispersal varies by sport.

Football, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s volleyball and women’s gymnastics are called “head count” sports where student-athletes can only be awarded full scholarships. There are 137 scholarships for the 190 players on the public rosters of those teams. Odds are your favorite student-athletes in those sports will graduate from Penn State with their education bills fully paid.

But what about student-athletes in other sports? In the sports that are not “head-count” sports, coaches can and do split up their scholarships to benefit as many as they can. In those sports Penn State has 234.4 scholarships for 670 student-athletes. That means the average student-athlete on one of these teams has roughly 35% of their costs covered.

What does that mean? It means the average student-athlete in the 26 non-“head count” sports is paying $21,059 in-state and $32,716 out-of-state to go to school and compete for Penn State.

Coaches, student-athletes and the parents in those sports must become accountants. For example, a wrestler from Ohio getting half a scholarship from Penn State would still pay roughly $25,166 to come here ($100,664 over 4 years). Ohio State could offer that same wrestler a half scholarship and he would only pay $11,656 per year ($46,624 over 4 years). 

For many wrestlers, Penn State coach Cael Sanderson is more than worth that price. But what happens if or when he retires (hopefully not for many decades). How could Penn State close the financial gap?

Enter the world of NIL collectives. So, what is an NIL collective? 

Collectives are formed by fans or alumni to pool resources to strike NIL deals with student-athletes. Collectives can be arranged deals between student-athletes and companies or interested parties to use their name, image or likeness to promote apparel or products or services. A lot of it involves social media, appearances and autograph sessions. 

Penn State had started more slowly in the collective market that some other schools.

Last week a new non-profit collective named Success With Honor opened to help Penn State. Knowing how many student-athletes are shouldering the costs of college to play for Penn State, this collective will be a broad-based, non-profit initiative to create opportunities across all sports.

Seeing Penn State lagging in the collective market, I approached Anthony Lubrano to see what we could do to get something started. Working with Ben Bouma, Kerry Small, Courtney Altemus (from Team-Altemus) and Jason Belzer (from Student Athlete Empowerment) we started putting together a collective using the name Success With Honor.

In that process I assembled a diverse, 11-member advisory board made up of Penn State graduates. That uber-talented eleven-member board represented nine different sports, consisted of six men and five women and demographically reflected our Penn State student-athletes.

At the same time, in another effort to form a collective, a group of donors including Mark Toniatti, Rick Sokolov, Anthony Misitano, Ira Lubert and Bob Poole had put up substantial capital. Because Anthony Lubrano and I are serving Penn State trustees, we are limited with what we can do. As such we joined that group of donors who added two more members to the advisory board (a second wrestler and a third football player).

In the discussions to combine our efforts, we were unanimous on our goal to benefit student-athletes by creating an innovative and aspirational national model. It is a goal rooted in our history.

In the mid-1960s, when college football was going through a growth spurt of great change, Penn State embarked on a “Grand Experiment” to do things the Penn State way. That approach created a Penn State differential that attracted student-athletes looking for academic and athletic excellence in a time when cutting corners was rampant.

Now decades later, we are seeing massive change in college athletics again. In an era where some collectives are forming to be ATMs for recruiting football and basketball players, this group saw a chance for a renewed Penn State differential. 

The ATM collective model will be unsustainable over the long term. That model requires promises and payouts to recruits. A year later there will be another recruiting class needing more money. And you will need more money to keep your current players from leaving and money to recruit players from the transfer portal. You’ll need to fund four streams of money for talent every year. Experts agree that model will see a major future market correction. 

So, we committed to the idea that we could create and focus on a Penn State differential.

We will fund academic internships, educational opportunities and opportunities for student-athletes to run camps and clinics as well as public service trips to places around the country or even abroad. Certainly, it will help football and basketball student-athletes. But it will help student-athletes in all sports tackle the costs of attending college and help reduce their student debt load. For student-athletes on full scholarships from challenging socioeconomic backgrounds, NIL can create income to help their families. 

But beyond the money, we will create experiences that go beyond the classroom and athletics. That will attract and retain student-athletes who will become loyal Penn Staters. It is just part of the Penn State way that has been in the DNA of Penn State Athletics for generations.

And as you look at the student-athletes competing for your favorite teams, remember the numbers mentioned above. It is easy to be jaded about NIL through the lens of high-profile players. 

But the truth is that most of those student-athletes you root for are paying to play for Penn State. Many of them, like their fellow students, will be graduating with student loans and debt and are hamstrung because the hours they give to their sport preclude them from jobs that would help offset those financial needs.

NIL allows Penn Staters everywhere to help these student-athletes find ways to help them pay for college and allow them to compete at the highest level academically and athletically. That is what the Penn State way and Success With Honor have always meant in Happy Valley.