Penn State Athletics: As Expenses Grow, Kraft Still Committed to 31 Sports at Penn State (2024)
Pegula Ice Arena. Photo by Alysa Rubin | Onward State
In the face of growing spending for Penn State athletics and athletic departments across the nation, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Pat Kraft is committed to keeping all 31 varsity sports programs, he told StateCollege.com last week.
“What I always tell people is the football [and] basketball, is the national brand national piece,” Kraft said. “Our Olympic sports, especially here where you’re uber competitive — think 22 of our teams made the NCAA this year in the postseason — they build our culture, they build the community. Now when you reach a wrestling status like we have, we’re the best in a world that’s a national story. OK, they built that one into national notoriety. But like our men’s lacrosse team goes to the Final Four last year, what men’s and women’s hockey do, like that helps build your 760,000 alum community to grow and to be excited.
“I think there’s real great value in having 31 and if you look at our history in fencing, women’s volleyball, what we’ve been able to do in hockey and lacrosse, track and field, there’s real value in that. Now. I think we it’s gonna come down to how we adjust financially and how we travel and how we do certain things. But we’re fully committed to the 31.”
Penn State’s No. 23 Finish in Learfield Cup Standings Not So Krafty
A commitment to 31 Division I sports is an interesting challenge for an athletic department like Penn State which has found no small part of its identity centered around a diverse and deep athletic department. On the one hand it has always been part of the fabric that makes Penn State what it is, on the other hand collegiate athletics are not as lucrative of a venture as they might appear. Excluding Penn State football and men’s basketball, every single sport that Penn State fields posted more expenses than revenues in the most recent fiscal year, something that has been true for the better part of forever. Even wrestling landed on the wrong side of the ledger, posting $3.2 million in revenues while coming up just shy of $4 million in expenses.
At face value it’s not much of a surprise. Most sports require more game-to-game and seasonal costs than the limited areas where the money comes back in. It’s not a sign of a poorly run athletic department than say, swimming, something of a staple at most colleges, doesn’t make more money than it spends. That’s just how it goes.
This challenge isn’t unique to Penn State, but compared to Alabama and Georgia, athletic departments that field 15 and 20 sports respectively, the amount of football revenue that can simply go back into the football program, Name Image and Likeness ventures and infrastructure upgrades is inherently greater.
Then again there is the other side of the coin, Ohio State joining Penn State with a robust 30+ team athletic department. While many of the details of each department might be different, the costs of expanding conferences, revenue sharing with student-athletes (a figure that should hit around $22 million annually) and other needed investments will only increase spending needs and revenue demands. While cutting off a few hundred thousand from bloating budgets might not stem the tide, it is an obvious option on the table — one that athletic departments across the nation have faced for years now.
So to keep all those teams it comes down to the little things like travel and hirings. How travel budget square with a newly expanded, coast-to-coast footprint remains to be seen. Nevertheless, only $3 million of the departments’ $10.7 million travel budget was dedicated to football and men’s basketball, according to the most recent fiscal year reports.
“How do you attack hiring smarter and utilize scheduling and this is where everybody’s looking at it right?” Kraft added. “How do we look at, number one, providing the best experience in the country for our student athletes, but [also] you probably don’t need to go and fly across country 100 times. There’s enough locally that we can go do it. So it is changing the way we look at how we schedule and prepare ourselves for the [postseason] … the other thing that I think is really positive for us is our philanthropic support, and how that will continue to help us in a lot of places. That’ll help our individual programs drive where they can go.”
If Kraft can keep his word remains to be seen, but as media rights continue to grow and the world of college athletics continues to change, it would appears there’s no fire alarm to pull just yet.
In the face of growing spending for Penn State athletics and athletic departments across the nation, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Pat Kraft is committed to keeping all 31 varsity sports programs, he told StateCollege.com last week.
There are more than 800 Penn State student-athletes, participating in 31 varsity programs (16 men's, 15 women's), tied for the fourth-highest number of sports sponsored by a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institution. The Nittany Lions finished 2023-24 ranked No.
Volleyball. Penn State is home to one of the top men's and women's volleyball programs. Penn State is one of only 5 schools—and the only school not in California—to win an NCAA Championship for both men and women's volleyball, the others being Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Long Beach State.
Athletics. Penn State has one of the nation's most comprehensive and successful athletic programs, featuring 29 varsity programs and participates in the Big Ten Conference at the NCAA Division I level for most sports.
Ethnicity: Penn State's student body is quite diverse, but still majorly composed of white students. According to the Fall 2023 enrollment data, around 62.4% of undergraduate students were White, 6.3% were Black, 9.5% were Hispanic/Latino, and 7.6% were Asian.
– A total of 43 Penn State Football alumni are populating the rosters of 25 National Football League organizations. The Nittany Lions annually rank among the top 20 programs nationally in producing players in the NFL.
Penn State is great at providing students with academic mobility. There are plenty of Penn State graduates at all of the top MBA programs and law schools. Penn State also has lots of research opportunities that help students who are applying to doctoral programs.
Why is Penn State so popular? Penn State offers a high-quality education and a variety of highly regarded academic programs. Penn State is also known for its sports teams, extracurricular activities, and clubs.
At Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus, the most popular majors students study are Finance, General, Information Science/Studies, Psychology, and General. In fact, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus awards 449 degrees annually to Finance, General majors.
Penn State is not an Ivy League school. The Ivy League is a group of eight schools: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.
The Pennsylvania State University--University Park Tuition & Financial Aid. The Pennsylvania State University--University Park's tuition is $19,835 for in-state and $38,651 for out-of-state students.
Penn State is generally regarded as a reputable and respected institution. While it may not hold the same level of prestige as Ivy League schools or some top-tier private institutions, it is still a well-regarded public university with a strong academic reputation, especially in certain fields.
Submit your application for admission as early as possible. Admission into Smeal is highly selective. Applicants who apply before the application deadline of November 30th will have a competitive advantage.
Penn State is sending 30 alums to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Overall, there are 43 athletes, coaches or staffers with strong Nittany Lions ties participating.
In Paris, 145 members of Team USA were born in California -- the most of any state in this year's games. Our partners at Hearst Newspapers ran the data and compiled all the hometowns and birthplaces of Team USA Olympic and Paralympic athletes since the 1952 games.
Beaver Stadium has an official seating capacity of 106,572, making it currently the second largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth largest in the world. Its natural grass playing field is aligned northwest to southeast at an approximate elevation of 1,150 feet (350 m) above sea level.
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