Penn State Sports Magazine
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A P R I L 2 0 2 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M T he impending retirement of Penn State athletics director Sandy Bar- bour, announced March 16, was met with an outpouring of gratitude. Led by exiting university president Eric Barron, football head coach James Franklin, men's basketball coach Mi- cah Shrewsberry, longtime field hockey leader Char Morett-Curtiss and a litany of other coaches, the sentiment was con- sistent. Everyone extolled her devotion to the needs of Penn State's student-ath- letes and coaches during her eight years heading the department. "We are incredibly grateful for Sandy's leadership and dedication to Penn State's athletics program, student-athletes, coaches and staff, and fans across the commonwealth and beyond. It's been an honor to work with her," Barron said in a statement. "Through her forward- thinking, competitive spirit, and passion for people and sports, Sandy has built a collegiate model to aspire to and has helped the Nittany Lions thrive as one of the nation's most successful athletics departments." Since her arrival in 2014, Barbour has overseen seven NCAA champion- ships, with Penn State winning titles in women's soccer, women's volleyball and wrestling. The Lions' successes have also included 39 conference championships. Those competitive achievements are only one part of the legacy she will leave behind when she steps down this sum- mer. She also established a commitment to academic pursuits in athletics, with the Morgan Academic Center opening in June 2016. Determined to maintain the "Success with Honor" mantra that so clearly demonstrated the values integral to PSU athletics, Barbour doubled down on the notion throughout her tenure. As it looks to the future, Penn State finds itself with a difficult needle to thread. With the introduction in Decem- ber of Neeli Bendapudi as the university's next president, critical decisions will define the direction the department takes moving forward. Bendapudi's pick to replace Barbour will be the foundation upon which every- thing else rests. Amid the rapid changes that are transforming major-college athletics, Penn State will have to confront fundamental questions of who and what it wants to be. The major challenges are plentiful. Among other things, PSU must: • Align a department-wide approach to name, image and likeness (NIL) issues. • Adjust to the academic implications of immediate transfer eligibility. • Set Penn State's priorities in advance of a new Big Ten rights deal likely to more than double its annual media revenues. • Determine the needs of an athletics department that has an exceedingly rare 31 Division I sports programs. • Decide how to maintain a vast ath- letics infrastructure, including an aging Beaver Stadium. • Balance the competitive necessities of a football program that is fighting for national relevancy against the needs of all the other sports. The announcement of Barbour's im- pending retirement, particularly in light of her December statement in which she indicated she intended to stay at least through the end of her contract in June 2023, suggests that Penn State has al- ready decided to shift its approach. After Franklin's contract was extended late last year, he offered some insight into the challenges that lie ahead as Penn State looks to reconcile its traditional identity with the new reality in college athletics. He made a distinction between policies that need to evolve to meet the moment and values that should serve as the school's bedrock. "What are the core beliefs and values that should never change?" he asked. "These are the things that allowed us to be successful at Vanderbilt. These are the things that allowed us to come to Penn State and be successful at Penn State. And what's the next step? "[The biggest thing that] I think we're closer to achieving than ever is the align- ment — the alignment with the board [of trustees] and down to the head football coach. I think that's the next step for us so that we can consistently do what the fans and the alumni and the lettermen want us to do." For years, Franklin has emphasized the importance of matching or exceeding the commitment of Penn State's Big Ten and national competitors. He believes that is necessary to compete at the highest level. "It's what we do on the field that's important, but it's also all the things that we do off the field," he said. "We have got to be willing to compete year-round, because all the little losses that you have throughout the entire calendar year, those add up. All the wins that you have throughout the calendar year, add up. "We have to be willing to do those things in all areas, year-round, for us to have the type of success that we want to have consistently." Barbour sought to manage a delicate balancing act throughout her tenure. Now, those decisions will be left to Penn State's next athletics director. Central to the identity of both the athletics de- partment and the university as a whole, they'll be of critical importance. ■ Barbour announced on March 16 that she would be step- ping down as athletics director this summer after eight years at Penn State. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS O P I N I O N NATE BAUER nbauer@bluewhiteonline.com HOT READ Sandy Barbour Has Managed A Tricky Balancing Act