LaVar Arrington Wants to 'Disrupt' How Penn State Thinks About NIL

The Hall of Fame linebacker is creating a platform to help Penn State athletes grow their personal brands and their NIL value.

LaVar Arrington is pictured at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta before the 2023 Peach Bowl. / Mark Wogenrich/Penn State on SI

LaVar Arrington has studied the NIL world, both at Penn State and nationally, since it launched in 2021. He also successfully built a media career and personal brand since his NFL playing career ended. Now, the Hall of Fame linebacker wants to introduce a new way for Penn State athletes to brand themselves and increase their Name, Image and Likeness value. For Arrington, "brand" is the keyword.

"I’ve been seeing how people raise money and how they’re doing things to try to help in the NIL space," Arrington said. "I just feel like I have a better way of assisting, and I'm testing it out to see if I'm right. If I'm right, I'll be able to help out a lot of our athletes. If I'm not, I gave it a Penn State try."

Arrington, the legendary Penn State linebacker inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2022, wants to change how Penn State athletes approach NIL. Through his media company DisruptU-PSU, Arrington is partnering with the Penn State Brand Academy to help Penn State athletes create and distribute short-form pieces of content via social media, on YouTube, in podcast form, etc.

Then Arrington said he plans to leverage his connections in radio and TV (including iHeartMedia and Fox Sports) to introduce companies to Penn State athletes, seeking to fit each side with marketing opportunities. By doing so, Arrington said, athletes will build their own NIL value, which they can monetize long term, rather than rely solely on payments from a collective. And that could help reduce the need for fans to fund NIL through direct donations. He called the process "disruptive."

"I’ve educated myself on how all this works, and if I pull it off, it could become a new approach," Arrington said. "I plan on trying to monetize all of our athletes, and I don't want to limit it to football. I also don't want to beg our community for money. I just want our community to support the content that's being created by our student-athletes, so you don't have to complain about going into your pocket and spending money to help [fund] NIL. Just support the athletes on social media, give them a follow and follow the ad campaigns. That will prove the concept and show advertisers there is truly impact in creating content with Penn State student-athletes."

"I love Penn State and I want to see Penn State flourish."

- LaVar Arrington

RELATED: Evaluating the past and future of Penn State's NIL program

The partnership includes support from iHeart Media Sports, whose president called the initiative "groundbreaking."

"We are incredibly thrilled to partner with DisruptU PSU in this groundbreaking initiative," Kevin LeGrett said in a statement. "By creating a structured marketplace, we aim to empower big brands to
invest in student-athletes with confidence, fostering a thriving environment that benefits both the athletes and the sponsors."

Arrington is working with the Penn State Brand Academy to create and distribute these short-form pieces of content. The Brand Academy is a new Penn State NIL initiative funded through a $5 million endowment that included an anonymous $2.5 million donation honoring the late Wally Triplett. Penn State began the Brand Academy to help athletes navigate the NIL world.

Omar Easy, a former Penn State football player, returned to his alma mater to become director of the Penn State Brand Academy. He has studied athlete compensation and the NCAA for more than a decade. At Penn State, Easy wrote his Ph.D. dissertation about the "myth" of the student-athlete.

The Invent Penn State initiative houses the Brand Academy, which Easy said will steer athletes forward into the changing world of NIL. Even as schools begin paying athletes through revenue sharing and collectives move under the athletics umbrella, NIL will remain a powerful earning tool. Athletes who understand the branding process will better equip themselves to build savings while in college and continue to monetize their brands after their playing careers end, Easy said.

“That’s how we approach this; building that personal brand, because that's something you can take with you,” Easy said. “You can’t take that Penn State brand with you. Yeah, you'll be a part of it. But it's not yours. Your brand is your brand. That’s the message."

RELATED: Penn State charts a new course in NIL

Former Penn State football players O.J. McDuffie (left) and LaVar Arrington at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. / Mark Wogenrich/Penn State on SI

At the 2023 Peach Bowl in Atlanta, Arrington rented a theater at the College Football Hall of Fame to deliver a presentation about the importance of NIL for Penn State's athletic success. He shared a kernel of this idea during the talk with former Penn State receiver O.J. McDuffie. "Content is king," Arrington said in Atlanta, "and branding is imperative." He believes that model is the future for Penn State.

"There are going to reckonings coming where I can see major schools slipping into the abyss of being average schools, and it can happen to big-brand schools," Arrington said in a recent interview. "If [Penn State] thinks we can be an elite school but not have elite ways of doing things, then we will slip into being an average program."

Arrington, whose son Lavar Arrington II recently committed to play football for the Nittany Lions, is bringing the branding project to Penn State football games this fall. Arrington plans to host his "Stix City" tailgates, a reference to the No. 11 that Penn State linebackers wear, at all seven Beaver Stadium home games. He wants to bring potential advertisers to campus, introduce them to athletes and "see what we're all about."

"I love Penn State and I want to see Penn State flourish," Arrington said. "And I want to work to hopefully create new opportunities to push our university forward. If we're improving athletics and the football team, that's a tide that lifts all ships. That improves our economy in State College. It makes us more relevant. It's a great stimulus for all of us if we can pull this off."

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Penn State on SI is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on X (or Twitter) @MarkWogenrich.