Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1539550
OCTOBER 2025/VOL. 41, NO. 2 MANAGING EDITOR Matt Herb CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Stu Coman Cathy Jones Chris Riffer WEBSITE PUBLISHER Sean Fitz WEBSITE EDITOR Nate Bauer STAFF WRITER Greg Pickel RECRUITING REPORTER Ryan Snyder FOOTBALL ANALYST Thomas Frank Carr CONTRIBUTING WRITER Jim Carlson PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Manuel, Mark Selders, Frank Hyatt COVER PHOTO Mark Selders/Penn State Athletics DESIGN Jeanette Blankenship Chris Miller F F F PUBLISHER Mark Panus BUSINESS ANALYST Sarah Boone CIRCULATION COORDINATOR Beverly Taylor ADVERTISING SALES Maria Taustine (502) 552-4390 CUSTOMER SERVICE Lauren Gordon, Shelby Cragg, Cathy Jones (800) 421-7751 BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED (USPS 742-550) is published monthly, except June, by Coman Publishing Co., a division of On3 Media, Inc., located at 905 W. Main St., Suite 24F, Durham, NC 27701. A one-year (11 issues) subscription is $68.00. First-class, digital and foreign rates available on request. Periodicals postage paid at Durham, NC 27701 and additional mailing offices. Printed by The Papers, Milford, Ind. POSTMASTER: Please send address correc- tions/changes to BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Durham NC 27702-2331. For advertising or subscription information call 1-919-688-0218 or write BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Durham NC 27702-2331. Site Lines C O M M E N T S F R O M T H E L I O N S D E N A T B L U E W H I T E I L L U S T R A T E D . C O M W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M ON PENN STATE'S DEAL WITH ADIDAS AND ITS POTENTIAL NIL IMPACT … 1.) This is objectively helpful for what we want to achieve on the field in the years to come. 2.) Let's not get it twisted. This does not dent Phil Knight's wallet. It's purely out of principle, which is fine. I appreciate us shifting away from Nike and "indirectly" funding Oregon's roster. — Troppie Is Nike giving us anything for NIL right now? Or is this truly a $15- 20 million annual increase in our NIL budget? Because if so, that is HUUUGGE! — Ohio_Pirate I still think James Franklin will go with his motto of "prove it first" generally, but we now have sig- nificantly more money to give to players when they do prove them- selves. I believe we'll go out of our comfort zone for certain recruits, but I don't think we'll see us throw- ing cash at every recruit. — Allar- 4Heis The other side of this equation is that you can't pay high school kids more than your proven stars. That's simply not tenable. As soon as you start overpaying high school kids, you turn your team into a group of mercenaries and you will have to rebuild through the portal every year. That ends up being the roller coaster that is Florida State football right now. — gigantor We could be Ole Miss and not pay top dollar for high school recruits and instead pay for pro- duction in the transfer portal, but that's not Franklin's ethos. He needs enough money to retain the stars, but also replace them through recruiting and development, and selective transfers. That's the needle he's trying to thread. — PhillipintheValley Let's give credit where it's due. We're in this position because we went all in across the board. The team performed well last year and appears to be poised to be top-four again. James Frank- lin is managing for sustained success. We have exhibited star-generation power with Saquon Barkley, Micah Parsons and now possibly Abdul Carter and Drew Allar. Brands need stars, not numbers. The stadium commitment has been made and is being executed on schedule. And we're in a top-two conference that has national eyeballs on it. — PSU Mike It's great that Penn State is keeping up, or perhaps moving temporarily ahead, in this arm$ race. I truly hope the added cash makes them more competitive with the big spenders. How- ever, this influx in revenue should be looked at in relation to the revenue of their top competi- tors (Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, etc.). Do we think that Adidas or the other apparel companies will stop handing out these giant deals after doing one with PSU? Every one of the top schools will either look to opt out of their existing agreement or ask that their current deal be restructured to align with (or exceed) Penn State and Tennessee. Once that occurs, our temporary advantage, if there is one, will start going away. — Gronky 4 O C T O B E R 2 0 2 5 Athletics director Patrick Kraft signed a 10-year partnership with Adidas that will replace Penn State's deal with Nike that started in 1993. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL