Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1545675
1 0 A U G U S T 2 0 2 6 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M A s part of its College Football Pre- view magazine, Athlon examines every Power Four program through the eyes of competing coaches. Granted anonymity to speak candidly about the teams that make up the rest of their league, the coaches shed light on their counterparts at other schools, along with personnel and other factors that could determine a team's success or failure in a given season. Increasingly, those conversations have touched on NIL spending as a key factor in teams' on-field results. After seeing mass migration, both in and out of the program this offseason, Penn State has undergone one of the more significant roster overhauls in col- lege football. Still, one anony- mous Big Ten coach suggested the Nittany Lions have largely managed the process well. "I don't necessarily know that they're gonna be immediately good in Year 1, but I thought the three big guys who followed (former defensive coordina- tor) Jim Knowles to Tennessee went for way more money than I would've paid them if I were Penn State," the coach said. "I thought they made a couple of re- ally good adds. I also thought they kept a couple of really good players that could've left, like (linebacker) Tony Rojas. That's a really good player that probably could've gone anywhere for a lot more money than what he got at Penn State." Under the House settlement model, schools are able to pay their team up to $20.5 million directly from athletics de- partment revenues, rather than relying solely on outside business deals and col- lectives. The quality of a team's roster of- ten mirrors the money spent to acquire it. Athlon's anonymous format created an environment in which coaches were able to openly acknowledge the growing influ- ence of money in player recruitment and retention. Naturally, in the wake of Penn State's coaching transition from James Franklin to Matt Campbell, the Nittany Lions became part of that discussion. While school officials haven't said how much they spent on the Nittany Lions' 2026 roster, Front Office Sports estimated its value at $25.61 million. That figure falls well short of the estimated $40 million that the top programs in college football are reportedly lavishing on their rosters, but it still places Penn State comfortably among the sport's bigger spenders. Riding a wave of success at Iowa State, Campbell has long acknowledged the importance of maximizing whatever re- sources are available. During his intro- ductory news conference in December, he noted that his Cyclones staff "had to be better evaluators in high school, better evaluators in the transfer portal, because it was the only shot" that Iowa State had to compete against Big 12 programs that had more financial backing than they did. Shortly after his arrival, Campbell wel- comed 24 former Iowa State players to Penn State, an influx that likely involved raises for many of the newcomers. And NEWS & NOTES Lions' NIL Philosophy Under Matt Campbell Comes Into Focus N A T E B A U E R | N AT E . B A U E R @ O N 3 . C O M Redshirt junior linebacker Tony Rojas was described in Athlon's season preview magazine as "a really good player that probably could've gone anywhere for a lot more money than what he got at Penn State." PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL