On Thursday, Penn State ushered in a new era in its NIL collective.
Success With Honor has merged with Lions Legacy Club to form a new NIL collective: Happy Valley United.
The collective allows Success With Honor to serve all of Penn State’s all 31 athletic teams, while the Lions Legacy Club will handle the football program’s day-to-day NIL operations.
Also in the new collective, Penn State football will have its own sphere, basketball will have its own sphere, and all other varsity sports will have their own sphere, with the latter two being controlled by Success With Honor.
Nittany Sports Now had an exclusive with Success with Honor’s CEO Mark Toniatti, in April, and asked him about his goals for 2023.
Our goal is to meet the needs of our coaches and be able to provide the opportunities for our athletes. If at the end of the year, the coaches say, “You did a hell of a job,” and the athletes say, “It was a good experience. I learned a lot.” Because we don’t only just say, “Go do this appearance,” or “Sign these autographs, sign this football,” or whatever it may be, we want to stay with them throughout the year and help them understand, they are learning about contracts. They are learning about managing finances. They’re learning about their taxes. Let’s stay with them and make sure. We cannot force somebody to file the tax, but we can make sure that they know that the income that they receive from us has been reported to the IRS, and they need to file their taxes. So it’s an educational opportunity for the athletes throughout the entire year, and that’s the things that we focus on. It’s not a one-shot; get it done, move on to the next. These are our athletes, and these are our students, and part of being a student is to learn while you’re going through it.
Twitter: @bwalkerdadon
