Sunday Column: Raising The Recruiting Bar at Penn State Requires a New-Age Total Team Effort

Happy holidays, Penn State fans. May it be a true season of giving for your families and friends.

And your beloved football program.

James Franklin put a bow on another top-20 recruiting class this week, the ninth time he has done so in the 10 recruiting cycles in which he’s led the Nittany Lions per the 247 Sports Composite rankings (and the 10^th time, Penn State finished 21^st). Recruiting is how he made his bones, and whether it’s getting the top players from Pennsylvania in most years or finding some under-the-radar gems in both expected and unexpected recruiting pockets around the country, Franklin has pretty consistently delivered on that front, if not at quite an elite level, and that’s with coordinators coming and going at nearly the speed of the transfer portal itself.

This autumn, he led those recruits to another 10-win season that was both top-10 quality and ultimately disappointing. Many, even some of his longtime supporters, questioned whether Franklin has already hit his ceiling at Penn State, if continuing to fall short against the big dogs of the conference isn’t a temporary setback but a frustrating way of life. Well, no matter what you might think of Franklin’s gameday management or his ability to select coaches that will create game plans good enough to succeed against everyone on the schedule, that ceiling has been and will continue to be determined by the caliber of player he is able to bring to Penn State.

That is where you come in, dear fans.

So far, Franklin has delivered top-20 recruiting classes with NIL resources that, well, there aren’t any ESPN rankings on these things, but they’re not top-20. Several concerned parties, including FTB sponsor Happy Valley United and the athletic administration itself, have helped Penn State get its collective stuff together from a structural standpoint. But neither HVU nor Pat Kraft can turn straw into gold, nor good intentions into NIL dollars that will attract and retain the players Franklin needs to be successful. The fans, those with deep pockets and those who are counting every dollar these days, hold the future of the program in their wallets, er, hands.

Is that being overly dramatic? Maybe. But it’s also the twisted reality that NIL has created. On the one hand, you have a college football industry that is raking in the dollars like never before. The 2023 season was the most-watched in college football history, with an average of 19.1 million viewers checking in to see the Michigan-Ohio State game and the playoff games still on tap. Between revenue from TV contracts, corporate sponsorships, apparel sales and skyrocketing ticket prices, athletic departments are using football revenue to support almost every other sport and the networks are filling their pockets at a clip rivaled only by the ratings juggernaut that is the NFL.

For years, player advocates argued that the young men on the field should see some of that money, since their touchdowns and tackles were the primary mover, and here we are three years into NIL and … they’re getting none of that pie. Now, in all its benevolence, the NCAA is permitting players to receive pieces of a separate pie. And it’s up to the fans to purchase the ingredients.

It’s insane. Would revenue sharing, which is gaining momentum in some circles, make it saner? In some ways, yes, but the pieces of the first pie getting divvied up among all athletes would throw a wrench into Title IX and cause some big shakeups—also known as the chopping of non-revenue sports—in athletic departments around the country.

So Penn State fans have a couple of options: 1. Don’t wait for revenue sharing, and contribute whatever they can to see that the Nittany Lions have sufficient NIL resources to compete with anyone in the country, or 2. Wait for revenue sharing, and hope that Franklin can close the gap between Penn State’s recruiting and that of the teams it is perpetually chasing when money is not as big a part of the equation as player development and 110,000 people cheering for you just for running out of the tunnel.

Is it fair that NIL has, at least for the time being, shifted at least part of the recruiting responsibility from the staff to the fans? No, but it is an opportunity. Penn State boasts one of the largest alumni bases in the world, and its football fan base extends well beyond that. That those numbers have not translated to a decisive NIL advantage can be attributed to several factors, not the least of which is a traditionalist outlook by a contingent of that fan base that views the whole concept of NIL as odious. But that hesitation simply means more room for growth.

If nothing else, it gives Franklin’s detractors a chance to put their money where their mouth is. If nothing is holding him back on the recruiting trail, then nothing is holding him back on the field, and if he doesn’t succeed with a full NIL chest and a cadre of elite recruits each season, then he truly isn’t the guy and Penn State will eventually move on. But Penn State hasn’t been close to full capacity in either the recruiting or the NIL arms races, and until revenue sharing arrives and maybe even after, those races are linked more closely than many fans would realize or admit.