Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft didn’t dance around the money question.
When Jon Sauber of the Centre Daily Times and Audrey Snyder of Inside The Lions asked about where Penn State men’s basketball stands financially and what the future looks like, Kraft made it clear he doesn’t view roster spending as a blank check situation. He said Penn State is not at the top of the market and added, “I gotta be honest, I don’t know if there will ever be a point that we would spend $20 million on a basketball roster.
It’s not a good investment. Let’s just call it what it is.”
Kraft also acknowledged that Penn State has slipped from where it was in previous cycles. He said the program had been near the top in NIL and marketing revenue before falling back, and that last year the Nittany Lions were “in the back half for sure.” But he stressed that the department can’t simply absorb every cost on its own, saying, “I’m not a ATM machine, I just can’t hand cash over…you gotta have it supported by philanthropic endeavors, corporate sponsorships, stuff like that…we will do what’s right for Penn State basketball.”
That point fits the new financial reality across college sports. Last June, the House vs.
NCAA antitrust class-action settlement got final approval and took effect on July 1, 2025, creating a $21.5 million spending cap for schools that opt into the revenue-sharing model. Athletic departments now decide how that money gets distributed across their programs, which is why Kraft pointed to outside support such as “philanthropic endeavors and corporate sponsorships.”
Penn State’s new Adidas partnership is expected to help on the third-party NIL side of things.
Sauber also reported that Penn State men’s basketball funding has nearly doubled for this year, putting the program close to the $8 million mark for the 2026-2027 season. Even so, that still trails the kind of numbers being discussed nationally.
Brendan Marks and CJ Moore of The Athletic reported that a roster around $10 million is probably the baseline to get into the NCAA Tournament this season, based on a survey of 25 Power Five coaches at Peach Jam. In that same survey, the Big Ten averaged $14.3 million, a number that sits well above Penn State’s current figure.
Kraft said the goal is still to give Mike Rhoades and his staff what they need to compete at a high level. He called the new staff’s work “a remarkable job” and said, “We have the resources, Mike has the resources to do what he needs to do.” He also said the team’s aim is to get into the NCAA Tournament and made clear that while Penn State may not ever be No. 1 or No. 3 in spending, the department will keep working to support the program when the need arises.
He was just as direct about the roster-building lesson from last season. Kraft said, “I think ‘Rhoadesy’ has done a good job.
We went young (last year) and it bit us. Great recruiting class, and now you’re seeing older is just winning…” He added that coaches need to recruit the best athletes and then coach them, while keeping players focused on basketball and not distracted by outside comparisons.
Kraft closed by saying he doesn’t spend much time worrying about Penn State’s exact place in the Big Ten spending race. “I don’t know where we are in the Big Ten and quite honestly I don’t really care, we got to make sure we’re getting the most to our coaches that we can.” He also said the team this year is “really talented and really good.”
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