Remember when Matt Campbell came from Iowa State to Penn State and everyone kept saying how Campbell was going to have so much more revenue? That definitely is true.
Campbell was a successful coach at a school with significantly fewer financial resources and lower national television revenue than say a school like Penn State.
Now think about PSU head basketball coach Mike Rhoades. Coming from mid-conference, head coaching stints at Rice and most recently at Virginia Commonwealth, Rhoades accepted the Penn State job in March 2023.
Definitely a promotion from a personal financial standpoint, but from a basketball standpoint, has it been a demotion?
Per Alexis Washington of The Commonwealth Times in Richmond, VCU spent between $4-$5 million on their athletics programs.
VCU’s athletic director, Ed McLaughlin, estimated that the majority of that $5 million would be dedicated to the men’s basketball program.
https://commonwealthtimes.org/2025/10/29/press-box-vcu-only-cares-about-mens-basketball/
Penn State men’s basketball program last season was allocated $3,004,666 in NIL spending.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.A mid-conference school of the Atlantic 10 with just 29,288 students being very comparable to a Big Ten school in men’s basketball NIL roster development.
Per David Jones of PennLive.com, the average Big Ten school last season spent between $8-$10 million on their men’s basketball programs.
https://youtu.be/WBjTh8ZfS68?si=pCWafJSGj0AZflSE
Michigan, the 2026 national champions, spent $12.5 million and there were six other Big Ten schools who spent at least $10+ million, per Steve Jones.
Jones, the long-time play-by-play radio announcer for PSU football and men’s basketball, said Wednesday on his daily radio show “Sports Talk With Steve Jones, “The bottom line is this…you need money to go out and get the top people.”
Earlier this week, Rhoades had this to say about where his program currently stands in NIL funding compared to his Big Ten counterparts:
“At the bottom. No coach is ever going to say they have enough. Everybody wants more in this arms race. This and that. It is what it is. Whatever you’re given, you gotta try to do the best you can with it and make no excuses and figure it out. The situation we’re in is what we’re in and we got to find a way to make the best of it and go from there. What teams are doing in our league and what we’re doing is totally different, it is what it is, and just make the best of it. I’ve said it, I’m not making excuses, when your back’s up against the wall compared to what others are doing, no excuses, gotta figure it out.”
