At this point, just take PSU's NIL money for basketball and divide it amongst wrestling and hockey. PSU had no history to speak of pre-NIL, and habitually paid some of the lowest coaching salaries in the conference. Now with NIL, unless we get a Marc Cuban type who is going to earmark a ton of money for basketball, PSU will never be financially competitive.
2025-26 PSU MBB Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
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Sasa Ciani went for 9.9 points/game and 7.6 rebounds/game as the starting center on a 10-10 team in a conference better than the MAC/Horizon. RayQwuandis Mitchell scored over 17 ppg before he got here. Leo O'Boyle scored 11.6/game. Sams Sessoms was the freshman of the year in his conference. Etc, etc.
The jump from the MAC/Horizon to the Big Ten is a very large one. We didn't have enough Big Ten talent...we had plenty of upper MAC/Horizon level talent. And that's where most of these guys that are leaving will land (outside of Mingo and Freddie).
How about take some of the NIL money being used for wrestling/hockey, and give it to basketball like the rest of the power conference schools do?
Our issue isn't just money but that is a key part. The fact that we are a perennial doormat with minimal fan support and behind both wrestling and ice hockey in popularity and probably priority during the winter sports season makes this a very tough sell.
If we can get support for the program through paying the next HC a lot ($5-$6 million a year?) then maybe we have a shot but guys who we could attract with a nice comp package may still turn us down because we have had such a bad track record in hoops and they feel they won't be able to get the talent. We need to not only pay the coach a lot but then also promise a good amount in NIL resources and with staff salaries to make it palatable for the next coach. At least NIL at the B10 average.
We also need to tell the new coach they can hire a basketball GM or at least be involved in hiring them and pay them what other college basketball GMs make.
Do they?
On the Revenue Share $ (the $21 Million or thereabouts) which a lot of people call NIL - though I expect you are not - we give as much to Men's Basketball as just about every one of our peers. In fact, nearly all the "big boys" allocate very, very similar Rev Share $ to their Men's BB.
The only significant difference wrt Rev Share $ at PSU is that PSU does NOT send most of the "rest" ($ not going to Football and Men's BB) to Women's hoops (which a lot of schools do). Instead, PSU sends that to - primarily - wrestling.
So PSU Men's BB is NOT at a disadvantage to its peers in Rev Share $.
If by "NIL $" if you are talking about donor money that flows through "collectives" and what not:
PSU can't "magic" that money into existence.
Either people give it, or they don't.
How much flows into PSU in that form? Who knows?
How much goes to Men's BB? Who knows? (But it probably ain't much - and significantly less than average, I would wager)
But if people don't want to give $ to PSU Men's BB, there really is no (legal) magic pill wrt $ to buy rosters.
Could certainly happen if the train keeps heading in the direction that it's going.
Wouldn't make a meaningful difference.
Besides, PK and all the cheerleaders say PSU is swimming in cash
Remember all those "transformative" deals w PlayFly, Adidas, and Elevate?I find it amusong whenever someone posts "just shut the program down". When was rhe last time a Division 1 school closed up its basketball team. Ain't happening here, either.
You know that almost all of those posts are sarcastic and made in jest and out of a feeling of futility. I've made those posts too, but I want to see this program at least get back to where it was in the late 2010s and early 2020s, which really isn't asking for much. The current state of the program, regardless of NIL, is totally unacceptable and absurd.
The landscape is new. When was the last time a wr was worth $10m?
Economics aren’t what you think
$6 MM with the dog sh|t that was on the floor this past season. Stealing cash money. For f*ck’s sake.
St Francis is doing it and there seems to reasoning that many more small schools will make similar moves.
Here is what school chairman Rev. Joseph Lehman said in the school's statement regarding the decision:
NCAA Tournament team dropping to Division III in shocking move
This could just be the tip of the iceberg for what is about to happen in college sports with smaller schools.
www.yardbarker.com
Love this move by St Francis. The president brings up some great points. Most notably that in Div 1 for basketball and certainly football there is no such thing as a student athlete and the travel is ridiculous and takes time away from the students being on campus and....well being a college student.
Penn State will never do this for basketball because of the money in the B10.
Penn State will never do this for basketball because of the money in the B10.
The thing is that PSU and St. Francis are in different stratospheres when it comes to college athletics, and the missions of their athletic programs are and need to be different; at schools like PSU, the athletic department arguably is more important than any academic program. A school like PSU, whose athletic program accounts for millions and millions of dollars, and also spends millions and millions of dollars, never should have a program as inept and hopeless as the basketball team is now.
False.
When a team.is LAST in the B10 spending, where would you expect the team to finish?
St. Francis was a very low level D1 program so they can and should make this move. If you play basketball at St. Francis, you shouldn't have to travel 1,500 miles for a Wednesday night game and miss three days of classes as a result. Not to mention the expense involved.
I agree, Penn State is a whole different category. You don't go from the B10 to D3 or drop down from the B10 to the MAC or whatever. There are millions and millions of dollars involved and other sports that would be dramatically affected by a move like this. Kraft needs to get this program turned around. He better hope Campbell is a success because if after 3 years the football program looks to have backslid versus the Franklin era while we are nowhere with basketball then there is no way he could still have a job.
Scratch that. Even Dom Stewart has packed up his gear.
There just isn't much left. Rebuilding with Ivan and a room full of empty chairs, for all intents and purposes.
Rebuilding the SMU football program after their Death Penalty was a less daunting challenge.
At this point, one might think Rhoades would WISH to get terminated (seriously). He certainly doesn't need the money - but getting a check for $6(?) million and being free to move along - without having to just "quit" might seem appealing.
The last two years have been brutal - and have to be wearing him down. It just can't be any fun.
His team has evaporated (again). There doesn't seem to be much likelihood of a new one - at even a minimal level of competitiveness - coming in.
His top assistants have scrambled on out of town (something that rarely happens without a coaching change... though, to be fair, Crispin's new gig is at least a HC spot).
If the scuttlebutt is true - he and his group can't raise squat wrt $ to buy players,
He has to be feeling like the last guy on the Titanic.
Maybe we could get the Iowa st coaching staff and players. They had a good year (except for making free throws). And we have a good track record with some of their other coaches.
Are these professiobal guys from Croatia and France decent? I would assume they are at least pretty good. One is on the Croatian national team. And Juric staying is a positive. Underwood made it a career year with a bunch of Croatian guys but I don't
think these guys are at that level.
Do we have anyone else on the roster besides these three? How much money do we have? Who is assisting Rhoades with the portal? Can we find some hidden gems from mid majors or Power 4 guys who were reserves but have potential?
This is looking bleak right now. It feels like Rhoades is lame duck and will be gone after next season.
think these guys are at that level.
Do we have anyone else on the roster besides these three? How much money do we have? Who is assisting Rhoades with the portal? Can we find some hidden gems from mid majors or Power 4 guys who were reserves but have potential?
This is looking bleak right now. It feels like Rhoades is lame duck and will be gone after next season.
Report: Former Penn State men's basketball forward Kebba Njie enters transfer portal
A member of the 2022-23 Penn State team will be in search of a new school.
Report: Former Penn State men's basketball forward Kebba Njie enters transfer portal
A member of the 2022-23 Penn State team will be in search of a new school.www.psucollegian.com
Interesting times we live in that guys with no eligibility left are entering the portal.
I guess players are entering the transfer portal because they were unhappy with the quality of their PSU education.
"We ain't come here to play school" - noted scholar Cardale Jones.
So, this past year, PSU brought in essentially an entirely new squad (only DIllione, Rice, and Stewart returned from the 2025 squad - and all of them were first year players in 2025)
Now, the very next year, the roster almost completely vanishes again - who's left? Some first year guys from 2026: Juric - and maybe Ciani, Mirtic, and Grodin (but I guess time will tell on even them).
How typical is this level of turnover in current college BB? I really don't know.
I do know it is rather silly to even refer to these as the PENN STATE basketball team (or the University X team, if this is now normal around the country)
It's just a bunch of guys being paid some short term money to put on a blue (or whatever color) jersey.
What's the point? (Aside from, usually, the school being able to make a few bucks... PSU excepted, at least for the time being). No one is coming in for, or leaving with, a meaningful education. These folks in no way are "representatives of" or part of the fabric of the university.
Is it all a "life support system" for gambling businesses? To give them a tool to separate bettors from their money once football season is over? (Maybe that's it?)
Is it just a "content" vehicle for the ESPNs of the world?
It certainly isn't "the point" regarding anything that "college" sports were supposedly all about.
And, yes, one can say the same for "college" football (though, from what I can see, college BB is even more extreme)
Now, the very next year, the roster almost completely vanishes again - who's left? Some first year guys from 2026: Juric - and maybe Ciani, Mirtic, and Grodin (but I guess time will tell on even them).
How typical is this level of turnover in current college BB? I really don't know.
I do know it is rather silly to even refer to these as the PENN STATE basketball team (or the University X team, if this is now normal around the country)
It's just a bunch of guys being paid some short term money to put on a blue (or whatever color) jersey.
What's the point? (Aside from, usually, the school being able to make a few bucks... PSU excepted, at least for the time being). No one is coming in for, or leaving with, a meaningful education. These folks in no way are "representatives of" or part of the fabric of the university.
Is it all a "life support system" for gambling businesses? To give them a tool to separate bettors from their money once football season is over? (Maybe that's it?)
Is it just a "content" vehicle for the ESPNs of the world?
It certainly isn't "the point" regarding anything that "college" sports were supposedly all about.
And, yes, one can say the same for "college" football (though, from what I can see, college BB is even more extreme)
KenPom quantifies the roster turnover a bit with his “Continuity” ranking. It measures the minutes played by player this season vs the prior year. This past season, we had 15.6% minutes continuity, which was 234th of 364 schools (there are 365 teams now, but New Haven doesn’t count since they were new to D1).
You probably would have expected us to be even lower, so it tells you how much turnover D1 basketball is seeing today. But we’ll be even lower in this ranking next year, and the amount of turnover is very concerning when there wasn’t a coaching change, and it’s not a bunch of guys out of eligibility.
Some football fans aren't worried about our poor recruiting. They think Campbell can bring in MAC players from the portal and coach them up like Indiana did the past two seasons. Maybe Rhoades can do the same with basketball.
Pat Kraft should have never been hired, how'd that even happen? Was it his exemplary work at Temple? You've got to be shittin me. I cannot even fathom how he got this job.
How do we rank in terms of P4 schools? A lot of the mid majors have frequent turnover with players leaving to go to bigger basketball schools.
I'm hoping that this program packs up in the middle of the night and moves to some other university ... and then we can be granted an expansion franchise.
We need a fresh start.
We were 51st of 79 Power 5 schools (including the Big East too, as most do on the basketball side).
A shocking thing is how many schools had full roster turnover...7 of the power 5 schools (and 21 schools overall) didn't have a player see the court this season that played the season before. Some of these are coaching changes...but a couple were schools in similar boats as us right now. ie Scott Drew didn't have a single player that contributed return to Baylor this season, Johnny Dawkins the same thing at UCF.
Apparently a lot of coaches don’t have much confidence in their ability to teach and develop.