Penn State's NIL rush to stay relevant: 'This could go wrong really quickly.'

The former Penn State captain said he began having football flashbacks last November.

Mike Mauti, the star linebacker who helped lead the Nittany Lions through NCAA sanctions a decade ago, felt compelled to help his university again.

He saw building storm clouds, program warning signs, during Penn State's ongoing rush to catch up in the race for name, image and likeness revenue.

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He knew Nittany Lion players were being offered enticing NIL deals to leave for other programs. He saw a coaching staff fighting to convince their own players to stay, to entice transfers to join, to get recruits to invest.

He was part of a fractured, even disjoined effort to raise NIL funds — college football's latest lifeblood financial support — and educate Penn State's vast alumni and fan network about it all.

Mauti understood, he said, because he felt similar save-the-program feelings before. He was a senior in the summer of 2012 when Penn State's players were suddenly free agents, able to transfer at will as part of NCAA penalties issued in light of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Mauti quickly helped lead a rescue mission to keep his team from splintering, possibly even collapsing.

He worried that coach James Franklin's ongoing program building was in danger, too. This time because of NIL.

Last fall, Mauti said he realized, "This could go wrong really quickly.

"I got on the horn and started sounding the alarm as best I could ... to try and help bring people together.

"I know how easily a roster can fall apart. We had already helped hold one together by the skin of our teeth."

Why is Penn State so far behind in NIL?

Penn State head coach James Franklin had been sending warning flares concerning the NIL landscape ever since the legislation passed in 2021. It allows college athletes to profit from themselves — to earn money from things such as autograph signings, hosting camps, appearances in commercials and on billboards, and selling their own merchandise.

But Penn State, Franklin has said, failed to embrace and plan for how its athletes were able to be earners while under scholarship. He knew other Power Five football universities were effectively helping organize fan and alumni efforts to raise war chests of funding and opportunities to not only attract recruits and transfers but keep current players well compensated.

How would he be able to keep building without the same resources? At some point, there would be consequences.

So Franklin altered his approach in early July: He reached out to the public via social media, stronger than ever. He urged them to donate, to help any way possible — to be "locked in on being 1-0 in the NIL race. There is power in our #750kLivingAlumni & we need everyone to take PRIDE & COMPETE NOW."

Franklin's frustration is palpable when he speaks about NIL, as he did in a recent interview with former Nittany Lion Adam Breneman, a college football broadcaster and media entrepreneur.

"For the first two years (of NIL), we weren't bold and aggressive with that rule. When the rules change, you better adapt, and you better adapt quickly. We didn't do that," Franklin said in the podcast. "We're starting to make some significant progress ... but we're (still) two years behind."

Until recently, Penn State's NIL outreach to the public was cumbersome if not confusing: competing companies or "collectives," each lobbying for varying kinds of support.

Collectives act as a "middle-man" in the NIL process, raising money to fund deals brokered between athletes and companies − raising money, in a sense, to convince athletes to come to their school. Collectives are associated with universities but are not operated by them.

Mauti, for example, helped start the Lions Legacy Club collective in September 2022, which was Penn State’s only NIL collective solely focused on football.

What do Penn State fans get from NIL?

Fans donating to these collectives often receive exclusive access to their program through events such as athlete meet-and-greets.

NIL rules, for example, allowed Penn State's Beau Pribula and his quarterback brother, Cade, to run a youth football camp this past spring in Mechanicsburg. Kids not only got to work with the college QBs for an entire morning, they and their families got to hang out with them afterward.

In July, Drew Allar spent two hours outside of the Giant in Bellefonte, Pa., signing autographs and posing for pictures as part of Frosted Flakes' Mission Tiger program, which raises money for junior high sports.

"We've been conditioned as a fan base, and rightfully so, that in the history of college football money going to players was a bad thing. That’s no longer the case, that’s no longer wrong ... I think it's important for people to understand that," said Andy Frank, Penn State's general manager of personnel and recruitment.

Quarterback Sean Clifford even started his own NIL company, and later sold it, all while studying and playing football at Penn State.

NIL money opportunities, most importantly, will provide incentive for the players Franklin and Penn State recruit and sign to stay in State College — to not transfer to an opposing school that's backed with better NIL finances or to leave early for the NFL.

NIL funding also is necessary to help attract key transfer players each year. If Penn State cannot provide sufficient monetary opportunities, those players can easily find them elsewhere.

Will Penn State, though its supporting NIL collective support, be able to match financial opportunities presented at regular College Football Playoff contenders like Ohio State, Georgia and Alabama — or from NIL leaders such as Texas A&M and Tennessee? Will they be close enough?

If not, it certainly can be a tipping point, according to those like Franklin and former players Mauti and Breneman.

"Let's be honest, we're behind ... and we should be the best in the country with it," Breneman said, citing Penn State's vast alumni and support network and lofty team expectations.

"When you’re two years behind the gap is huge."

For now, Penn State is nowhere to be found in On3.com's recent ranking of the top 20 most ambitious NIL collectives. The Lions were trumped by the likes of fundraising at Arkansas, Ole Miss, West Virginia and Kansas.

Penn State NIL positivity

Penn State, however, finally appears to be making significant NIL progress through 2023.

Penn State's two primary NIL collectives, Success With Honor and Lions Legacy Club, are merging into a single entity, a move seen as providing unification and a "clear direction." Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft called the merger "imperative" for the future of Penn State.

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The newly formed collective, Happy Valley United, will offer memberships, tax-deductible contributions and opportunities for businesses to partner with athletes in football, basketball and Olympic sports.

It recently joined six other schools to form The Collective Association — with an ultimate goal of creating a revenue-sharing model for athletes.

Meanwhile, the biggest-dollar NIL event yet to benefit Penn State sports will be held July 27 at a yacht club in Avalon, New Jersey. The “We are! At the shore” event — which is nearly sold-out — will feature appearances by former football players, from Mauti and Breneman to LaVar Arrington and Brandon Short, to several current players (including Allar, Nick Singleton, Olu Fashanu and Abdul Carter).

Ticket packages start at $2,000.

In recent months, West Shore Home and MITER announced a "landmark" seven-figure deal to become presenting sponsors of the Lions Legacy Club.

York-based real estate and development company Inch & Co., has provided football players with all-expenses-paid leases on new Teslas in exchange for public relations and marketing efforts. They continue to add players to their NIL roster.

Franklin's greatest success so far at Penn State, Breneman said, may well be his ability to not only recruit well despite NIL restrictions but to keep his roster nearly intact.

As in how star players, such as running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, have, so far, "turned down more money elsewhere to stay on this roster and build at Penn State. .... It's been absolutely huge," Breneman said.

Rewarding that effort with increasing NIL unity — and improving messaging and education for fans — is finally pushing Penn State forward, Mauti said.

"Having all efforts under one banner now," he said. "We’re all rowing in the same direction. Everybody’s rowing in the same direction now."

Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at  fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on Twitter @YDRPennState.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Penn State football, James Franklin's NIL push in college football