Adam Breneman's Incredible Path From Penn State Football Star to Media Mogul

Former All-American tight end has built a growing media empire since leaving the field, shares unique perspective on NIL

Nov 16, 2013; University Park, PA, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions tight end Adam Breneman (81) runs with the ball after a catch in front of Purdue Boilermakers safety Taylor Richards (4) during the second quarter at Beaver Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports / Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average American will change careers five to seven times during their lives. Former college football star Adam Breneman is on pace to exceed that stat and he isn't even 30 yet.

The former five-star recruit and All-American tight end at Penn State and UMass turned to coaching after a knee injury derailed his NFL dreams, but after becoming the youngest coach in Power 5, he found another calling: media.

Building his own media brand through social media content on his own channels, combined with on-air experience at ESPN and CBS, Breneman has established himself as a top young voice in the sport who brings a unique perspective to the NIL world and transfer portal landscape that very few media members have. Interviewing the top coaches and athletes in the country, Breneman highlights an authentic, engaging and refreshing voice to the media game.

Ahead of the upcoming college football season, Sports Illustrated caught up with Breneman to talk all things NIL and how he's evolving his own business in a few different directions.

"The NIL landscape has just been absolutely crazy," Breneman shared. "To start, NIL is a great thing at its core - players being able to make money on their names like this - but I'm a perfect example of a guy who had a great college career and I never made a dime playing football. I never got paid to play football and if I would have had NIL, I would have at least made some money. So I think NIL is a great, great, great thing for athletes, for kids but where, where NIL got messed up is the combination of NIL and the transfer portal and NIL becoming not really NIL anymore."

Although he didn't set Penn State and UMass receiving records in the NIL era, Breneman is making up for it now. He recently re-signed a partnership with daily fantasy sports operator PrizePicks, to create original content for the brand and promote their app.

"I've worked with PrizePicks for a year now to this point and the fantasy sports content is a big part of my business - I view it as kind of a vertical of what I do - I love the team, love the platform they built and the investment they've made in creators and in marketing," Breneman added. "For me, it is definitely the biggest deal I've ever done and I think it was exciting because you see a lot of the hard work getting to this point where a brand like that decides to invest in it someone like me and what it allows me to do from a resource standpoint for my team and and to bring the people along with you. This PrizePicks deal will be something that when I look back 10 years from now, it will be a pivotal moment in my journey."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Adam Breneman (@adambreneman)

Outside of his media career and partnerships, Breneman is also a co-founder at college sports media and production brand The College Sports Company, where is he brings his content expertise to schools across the country. Talking to athletic departments regularly, Breneman has a keen understanding of the ins and outs of all things NIL, collectives and the transfer portal.

"NIL has become pay for play where essentially collectives raise money from donors to pay players to come to the school," he continued. "That wasn't what NIL was intended to be. The star quarterback doing a deal with the local car dealership or the tight end going to the local deli shop and promoting the best meats in town - that is what it was at its core. I think the world has had to adjust now and what's gonna happen very soon is that schools are just going to start paying the players themselves with revenue sharing coming. Then what will happen is NIL will go back to what it was really intended to be, with a level playing field established."

Breneman's diverse experience and personal and professional evolution is a lesson for any college athlete to follow, regardless of their pro aspirations. He talks a lot about pivoting, giving space to change to try new things - and a few things at once - to see what the best next path might be. Although he had dreams of the NFL, then becoming an offensive coordinator by the time he was 30, the new forged path as a creator and media voice has taken off like he couldn't imagine.

As the season is set to kick, Breneman is optimistic about the game and the future, despite some negative conversation from fans and NIL naysayers.

"College football has never been in a better spot," he added. "Viewership has never been higher - as much as people like to complain about NIL - it's a great time to be in college football. I think that a lot of people had to figure out what this thing looks like and how to kind of get the train back on the tracks. I think we're getting closer as some of this new legislation and some of these lawsuits come to fruition."

Football fans can see Breneman on-air this Fall on CBS - where he just re-signed - and his consistent social media content and interviews across all of his channels.