'25 (in-season) - '26 CFB Portal Thread

May 17, 2011
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Wasn’t the argument that Franklin was reluctant to spend NIL? Now, we are being thrifty even though we were led to believe NIL wasn’t an issue? Something doesn’t add up.
It's not about being thrifty. It's simply about paying guys what they're worth. We're clearly not afraid to shell out for guys like Rojas, Kemajou, Granville, Howard, Dixon, the rest of the offensive line, etc. It's all going to come back to cost/value analysis. If Amare was a better LB, he'd be offered more.

I'm going to be happy if at the end of the transfer portal window, we used that cash to stack gigantic DT's and grab a couple of LB's who are just as good as Amare Campbell.
 

LB99

Heisman
Oct 27, 2021
9,530
13,484
113
Whoever coach Campbell selects will be the better LB. That’s why you should be patient and let things play out.
Gotcha. You were saying it with such conviction, I thought you would have a few names off the top of your head.
 

WVilleLion23

All-Conference
Oct 27, 2022
1,503
2,264
82
I have a life long buddy that lives in TX and his brother in law is a TT guy. Rumor is that the NIL fund which was started by that one former player that is now an oil $B is going to make sure the fund is even larger next season. Will be interesting to see if TT brings in any really big shiny new portal hauls. I think it is even going to be a wilder wild Wild West before we see efforts to try to get a cap put on things (if that even happens).
 
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Psumatt85

Senior
Jan 5, 2002
473
582
93
They may not care, but they do have to get through university acceptance and schedule classes prior to the start of the semester, otherwise they cant be in school and be training and practiciing with the team.
How long until that changes
 
May 17, 2011
96
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Wasn’t the argument that Franklin was reluctant to spend NIL? Now, we are being thrifty even though we were led to believe NIL wasn’t an issue? Something doesn’t add up.
And just to add to my previous post... the argument is Franklin misused NIL by OVER-spending on guys who never saw the field and UNDER-spending on guys who were slam-dunk contributors.
 

Blair10

All-Conference
Dec 30, 2002
1,843
3,872
113
Gotcha. You were saying it with such conviction, I thought you would have a few names off the top of your head.

It doesn’t matter what names I have or what any other poster has. Internet posters don’t make personnel decisions. What matters is who Coach Campbell and his staff selects from the portal. I trust our coaching staff. They are doing what they are paid to do which is to evaluate talent.

Again, relax and calm down. You are taking the Amare thing way too personally.
 

Ram20

All-Conference
Jul 29, 2013
582
1,194
93
PSU can’t just expect to take only the ISU guys and be successful in the B1G.
We almost beat Indiana with Dom Deluca on one side. Not saying all players are going to be plug and play for big ten championships, but I think its more about right size, right motivations, and development than big names....at this point. Indiana is going to start to attract big names, because they have done it with JMU guys.
 

Bison13

All-American
May 26, 2013
3,212
5,292
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This is just a guess, but maybe the issue is that they are designating a certain amount of money total to the linebacker group and they know they need to pick up at least two or three and paying Campbell what he wants goes above that target amount. I think much of this is the new general manager trying to use a NFL type system of paying for positions based on average value
 

Ludd

All-Conference
Oct 12, 2021
3,789
4,126
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Acceptance into an academic institution is not court dependent. There is nothing a court can say if academic requirements are x, students are required to meet x, and an athlete does not meet x. Universities cannot legally be made to take a student-athlete (even if student is in word only).
For now.
 

NOYDB

Sophomore
Jan 21, 2012
167
187
27
What flavor Kool Aid are you drinking these days. As I have said before, I like the Campbell hire and hope he wins those Big Ten and National Championships Kraft promised but call me old fashioned in that I prefer to see how Penn State does when they start playing games this September. I am particularly interested in seeing how Becht does at Penn State vs how Grunk does at wherever he goes.
You are basically just full of ****! You will be the first one, and happy about it, to be on here to say “I told you so”.

Give everyone a break with your passive aggressive BS..

Your talents aren’t wanted here, so head off into the Virginia mountains with BGJ
 
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LB99

Heisman
Oct 27, 2021
9,530
13,484
113
This is just a guess, but maybe the issue is that they are designating a certain amount of money total to the linebacker group and they know they need to pick up at least two or three and paying Campbell what he wants goes above that target amount. I think much of this is the new general manager trying to use a NFL type system of paying for positions based on average value
A bird in hand is worth two in the bush though?
 

KingLando

All-Conference
Nov 29, 2021
5,351
3,133
113
Semantics. It's probably very rare to "run a guy off." But we're not paying him what he wants. Frankly, I'm happy we have a real GM who isn't basing these NIL decisions on "It starts with I love you, and ends with I love you."
That's not semantics. If he wants some ridiculous amount of money we aren't going to just pay it because he's asking for it. We made him what we considered a fair offer. The guys we don't want aren't getting any NIL offers.
I have no doubt Campbell told a bunch of guys to leave. A professional way.
 
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May 17, 2011
96
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That's not semantics. If he wants some ridiculous amount of money we aren't going to just pay it because he's asking for it. We made him what we considered a fair offer. The guys we don't want aren't getting any NIL offers.
I have no doubt Campbell told a bunch of guys to leave. A professional way.
You argue just to argue. 😂😂😂 ... I'm literally agreeing with you and you're arguing with me about it.
 

Ram20

All-Conference
Jul 29, 2013
582
1,194
93
Of course, we were dissing him .

Yeah, im sure I'll take heat for this, but "diss culture" is just code for "i didnt get what I want, when I wanted it, how I wanted it." Some call this "life" others call it disrespect. What I do believe iss that you dont want a bunch of "diss culture" guys on your team, which is maybe why Amare didnt get what he wanted from this staff.
 
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Nits1989

All-Conference
Oct 29, 2021
1,224
1,764
113
Yeah, im sure I'll take heat for this, but "diss culture" is just code for "i didnt get what I want, when I wanted it, how I wanted it." Some call this "life" others call it disrespect. What I do think I believe, is that you dont want a bunch of "diss culture" guys on your team, which is maybe why Amare didnt get what he wanted from this staff.
Agree. Disagreement, not disrespect. Disagreement over value.
 

psu0408

All-Conference
Oct 28, 2004
394
1,012
83
PSU is never going to land or keep the guys whose primary motivation is money. Matt Campbell doesn't appear to be the type of guy to take photos in front of Bentleys while Chaz Coleman demands north of $2M. Overpaying a senior like Amare Campbell to start for a team with no NC aspirations is asinine. Let him go to Texas Tech or LSU.

Pay to keep the young core intact, grab two-deep guys from ISU out of the portal and use the money towards recruiting the guys that want to be here in the future. No more payouts for cheap recruiting wins (Olesh), backup WRs (Clifford) and 6-figure payouts to non-contributing special teamers.
 

Nits1989

All-Conference
Oct 29, 2021
1,224
1,764
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PSU is never going to land or keep the guys whose primary motivation is money. Matt Campbell doesn't appear to be the type of guy to take photos in front of Bentleys while Chaz Coleman demands north of $2M. Overpaying a senior like Amare Campbell to start for a team with no NC aspirations is asinine. Let him go to Texas Tech or LSU.

Pay to keep the young core intact, grab two-deep guys from ISU out of the portal and use the money towards recruiting the guys that want to be here in the future. No more payouts for cheap recruiting wins (Olesh), backup WRs (Clifford) and 6-figure payouts to non-contributing special teamers.
Agree, except I think the coaches and players on the team have championship aspirations in 2026. Why not? Let it come together. It's just starting.
 

Catch1lion

All-American
Oct 12, 2021
3,839
6,471
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Where is everybody getting this $30 million NIL cap from? If I understand it correctly, the number is $20.5 million allowed to come directly from the school. This doesn’t include third party NIL funding. I am unaware of a hard $30 million cap and find it VERY hard to believe the SEC schools, O$U, Oregon, USC, TT etc will have such a cap. The mantra has been that PSU has no issue with NIL funding now. So, why let a guy like Campbell walk when he’s a proven commodity already on your roster?

According to reporter Matt Fortuna Penn State is allocating $30 million in NIL funding to the football team this season. So it is not a hard cap, but it is the money we have raised from all sources for this season.
paywall -
 

Corner Room Breakfast

All-Conference
Oct 27, 2021
1,574
2,219
113
Yeah, im sure I'll take heat for this, but "diss culture" is just code for "i didnt get what I want, when I wanted it, how I wanted it." Some call this "life" others call it disrespect. What I do think I believe, is that you dont want a bunch of "diss culture" guys on your team, which is maybe why Amare didnt get what he wanted from this staff.
I would ask, what do you think you are worth ? How much?
The financial culture created by JF probably created his undoing, many players not worth their value, and as
the word got out what players were making, it created a locker room cancer.
 

PaRURALGUY35

Redshirt
Nov 30, 2025
35
46
18
Semantics. It's probably very rare to "run a guy off." But we're not paying him what he wants. Frankly, I'm happy we have a real GM who isn't basing these NIL decisions on "It starts with I love you, and ends with I love you."
Exactly! The new staff/GM are pretty much renegotiateing these players deals. Im sure its difficult, if the old staff over valued someone and the new staff doesn't see that player at the same or greater value. It would be like Liam Clifford coming back and Campbell not valuing him at the $500k that Franklin supposedly did and Clifford now wanting a million dollars. If its true that Franklin spread money around to everyone, then Im sure, there were many who were looking at reduced or no NIL at all. It really has to be difficult if your trying to evaluate and retain a roster, where you potentially have a large number of players receiving NIL and some players who were over valued and now they feel based off the previous valuation that they are worth way more then they are.
 

LMTLION

All-Conference
Mar 20, 2008
1,268
2,704
112
This isn’t against you, just the height argument in general. Who cares? Production is production.
Agree totally but we do not know the price tag and an exorbitant price tag may preclude us from solving other needs. The problem with Franklin that he had no methodology on the use of NIL outside of paying exorbitant amount for loyal seniors and overpaying for high star TE recruits. 1/3 of all the players in college football are in the transfer portal. This is now a mathematical calculation here in the GM office with no emotions attached. I wanted Amare to stay, but the reality is that he was very solid but not a superstar and not the prototypical CMC body type of a defensive player. He’s not going to get superstar money in our system. He may get it elsewhere, and hopefully he does because he may not make it in the league at his size. Interestingly, King Mack is another similar example of a shorter player not getting superstar money in our system and going elsewhere. Evidently Rojas with a rumored ACL got the money he wanted, but he has the height and speed.
 

LB99

Heisman
Oct 27, 2021
9,530
13,484
113
Agree totally but we do not know the price tag and an exorbitant price tag may preclude us from solving other needs. The problem with Franklin that he had no methodology on the use of NIL outside of paying exorbitant amount for loyal seniors and overpaying for high star TE recruits. 1/3 of all the players in college football are in the transfer portal. This is now a mathematical calculation here in the GM office with no emotions attached. I wanted Amare to stay, but the reality is that he was very solid but not a superstar and not the prototypical CMC body type of a defensive player. He’s not going to get superstar money in our system. He may get it elsewhere, and hopefully he does because he may not make it in the league at his size. Interestingly, King Mack is another similar example of a shorter player not getting superstar money in our system and going elsewhere. Evidently Rojas with a rumored ACL got the money he wanted, but he has the height and speed.
So, they kept the guy who is always injured and let the most productive player on last year’s defense walk. I wanted both guys but that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. The height argument is just a lazy excuse. I find it hard to believe a smart guy like Campbell would ever say that.
 
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LMTLION

All-Conference
Mar 20, 2008
1,268
2,704
112
So, they kept the guy who is always injured and let the most productive player on last year’s defense walk. I wanted both guys but that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. The height argument is just a lazy excuse. I find it hard to believe a smart guy like Campbell would ever say that.
The defense collapsed after Rojas went down. The middle of the field opened up and we got gashed, with Amare there. Opposing qbs who may not beat you or I in a footrace ran wild through the defense. Obviously some of it was coaching and Knowles’ scheme, but the players like Amare needed to make plays and they didn’t. Again, I wanted Amare to stay but let’s reserve judgement until after the portal closes.
 
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CyphaPSU

All-Conference
Oct 25, 2021
1,271
2,236
113
Yeah, im sure I'll take heat for this, but "diss culture" is just code for "i didnt get what I want, when I wanted it, how I wanted it." Some call this "life" others call it disrespect. What I do believe iss that you dont want a bunch of "diss culture" guys on your team, which is maybe why Amare didnt get what he wanted from this staff.
If you don’t want a lot of diss/respect culture on your team, then I’m afraid your team might not have as many players as you need. That type of culture is pervasive with kids and actually helps some guys stay motivated. How many times do you hear a player on a championship team say that the haters didn’t believe in them—even when it’s not generally true? Happens all over.

Makes me think, would offices be more productive if workers had that mindset? You successfully complete a big-time project, turn it over to your boss before the billable hours expired, and boast about how all the haters out there didn’t believe you can do it. 😆
 

LB99

Heisman
Oct 27, 2021
9,530
13,484
113
The defense collapsed after Rojas went down. The middle of the field opened up and we got gashed, with Amare there. Opposing qbs who may not beat you or I in a footrace ran wild through the defense. Obviously some of it was coaching and Knowles’ scheme, but the players like Amare needed to make plays and they didn’t. Again, I wanted Amare to stay but let’s reserve judgement until after the portal closes.
I think the issue was who Amare was paired with after Rojas went down. Not Amare. Amare and Rojas were really strong together. It was mind boggling that for some reason Knowles had Amare’s co starter trying to chase guys like Nico, not Amare. Nico gashed that D and it was obvious why.
 
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