Penn State quartet land Teslas in new NIL partnership
Four of Penn State football’s brightest stars have new rides. As announced by Inch & Co., Drew Allar, Abdul Carter, Olu Fashanu, and Kalen King now have Teslas thanks to the York, Pa.-based construction company.
According to a press release, all four players have received a Tesla for the next year. It has the “Inch & Co logo splashed along each side of the energy-efficient car.”
“This isn’t just an advertising opportunity, it’s an investment opportunity,” said Cambria Bailey, Marketing Director of Inch & Co., in a press release from the company.
Penn State NIL footprint
That corporate investment is something Penn State football has been seeking in its name, image, and likeness endeavors.
It’s part of a broadening package of NIL arrangements. In recent months, Allar and Landon Tengwall become the subject of children’s books. A bevy of players that have secured t-shirt jerseys with their names and numbers at The Family Clothesline. And, running back Nicholas Singleton secured a partnership with West Shore Home.
In this instance, Inch & Co. is the latest to provide support to Penn State’s student-athletes.
Speaking with reporters on Friday, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft described his optimism for the department’s NIL pursuits.
“If I can give you all the opportunities to be successful, and then you tap into our alumni base, and we have the second most CEOs in the country, and their businesses start to utilize our athletes to tell their story, that’s where you can be successful,” Kraft said. “That’s really why we’re trying to harness the energy. A lot is made about the collectives, and they’re very helpful, but that’s a portion of the NIL space.
“Corporate is big. Utilizing internships and jobs and education. We’re just scratching the surface.”
Next steps
From the perspective of Inch & Co., John Inch Jr., the Chief Financial Officer of the company, the investment into Penn State’s NIL is a chance to build the relationships that will lead to future dividends.
Asked by a father of one of Penn State’s players why that investment is being made, according to the release, Inch Jr. offered, “We believe in him, and our hope is that one day he will invest back in us.”
Obviously, we’re excited. I’ve got a great relationship with Olu and his family and it was exciting news. But I want to make sure that we’re doing everything we possibly can to support Olu as well.
“You can look at it from an old school perspective and say, ‘Hey, I don’t know if I like this.’ The reality is, we didn’t like it because of the negative connotations to it. Now, those aren’t there, and I think that it can be a great thing,” Frank said. “For all of us as we get older, we don’t want to be that old guy that says, ‘Back in the day, it was better.’ This is an opportunity for a bright future, and those that embrace change are always the people that are most successful moving forward in any aspect of life.
“(It’s) something that we need to embrace, and that’s okay. We’ve got the power of over 740,000 living alumni. And a huge percentage of those people care deeply about this place. If we can get all those people pulling the rope in the same direction, this is an opportunity for us. We just need to convince everybody that this is the right way forward for us. And I think that’s a huge piece of this.”
