Penn State Hires First Men's Basketball GM Amid Changing NIL Landscape

The era of Name, Image, and Likeness has brought with it a littany of changes to the collegiate athletics landscape. Not only do student-athletes now receive compensation for their efforts in their respective sports, but it has also brought with it new jobs within the programs that have more frequently been seen in the sports' professional counterparts.

General managers are becoming more and more common at the collegiate level, and the Penn State Nittany Lions men's basketball program is the most recent athletic department to add one to their staff.

According to a report from Field of 68's Jeff Goodman, the Nittany Lions' first GM will be Scott Pera, former head coach of the Rice Owls.

Pera worked for Penn State's current head coach Mike Rhoades with the Owls during Rhoades' tenure from 2014 through 2017, before Rhoades left to coach the VCU Rams. Pera was then promoted to head coach at Rice, but the program struggles to find success under his leadership. They played to only a 96-127 record in that time, with a 45-81 record in conference play.

Pera, 57, is a graduate of Penn State Harrisburg, and a Hershey, Pa. native.

He began his coaching career in 1992 at Elizabethtown College, before coaching in the high school ranks at Palyra and Annville-Cleona from 1993 through 2000. After that stint, Pera moved to the West Coast and served as head coach for Artesia High School through 2006.

The new GM returned to the collegiate level in 2006 as director of basketball operations for the Arizona State Sun Devils, before being promoted to assistant coach.

In 2012, Pera served as assistant coach at Penn State before his tenure under Rhoades with Rice.

Serving as the general manager of a program will be a new endeavor for Pera, as it will be for any for the foreseeable future. The GM does have more than 30 years of experience at the coaching ranks, which should serve him well in his NIL negotiations with players.

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