How Adam Breneman Wants to Change College Football, at Penn State and Beyond

Question: How do you try to contribute to that through State Media and The College Sports Company?

Breneman: Our belief is that athletes want to be part of content and want to contribute on social media. If I would have done that when I was playing football, I would have gotten laughed out of the room. But now it's common, and everyone wants to do it. We wanted to give athletes a place to do that. I think on top of it, every school and collective needed to find ways to make new money, to drive new revenue to pay the players. And we thought that creating a media network, and having these shows and assets that brands and donors can put money behind, was a great way to do that.

So that's when we started The College Sports Company and State Media. We have networks at Louisville, South Carolina, Tennessee, BYU, schools all over the country. And really the goal is to create great content for the fans, to show the fans a different side of current and former players and to build up the program and the brand. But most importantly, it's to drive new revenue for the players.

Question: How are you driving revenue for players?

Breneman: We operate like any other media company, where we are selling sponsorships and advertising, a lot of times to local businesses and donors. And then we have deals at each school where a certain amount, usually the vast majority, of the money goes directly to the athletes who are part of everything. So it's a great way for schools to find ways to use donor money to find new advertisers and for us to find national advertisers. We believe it's the future of college sports, and the schools and the NIL collectives that really think like media companies and operate like them will be the ones that are successful in driving the most revenue.

Question: How has growth gone with State Media?

Breneman: State Media has been great. We’ve done close to seven figures in revenue, and we have some media networks that are doing north of a million dollars a year in revenue. It’s pretty early, and we're still kind of adjusting and adapting. We're working out some new partnerships at Penn State, which I think will help us from a scaling and access and revenue standpoint. So it's really good. We are excited about it and we think the future is pretty bright. And the cool thing is that the players and the former players are really into it and excited to be part of it.

Question: How has Penn State received the idea?

Breneman: We operate like any other media company would at Penn State. We obviously have kind of unique access but we still get approval for things we're doing and still run things by the [athletic communications department]. We comply by that standard. I mean, really almost everything we're doing is extremely positive about the school, obviously. But the one unique thing is, the way we operate is really outside of the direct university partnership so that we can really participate in NIL directly. There are a lot of rules around NIL and who can be part of it. So we're a separate entity. We're a for-profit company. We are outside of the athletic department, but we obviously work closely with the school and have a direct partnership with the NIL collective [Happy Valley United].

Question: Who has been your best Penn State interview so far?

Breneman: Coach Franklin has been great. I've done two interviews with him, and I think in both he's been very candid and transparent. I've had a lot of people saying, 'Hey, I haven't really seen coach Franklin that open and honest before,' which I think is really cool. And I know Coach enjoys doing it. I thought [offensive coordinator] Andy Kotelnicki was a great interview. He was exciting and entertaining, but I always enjoy talking to the players too. They're fun.

Question: What has been most illuminating about your interviews with coach Franklin?

Breneman: One of the fun things we talked about is the time when he got to Penn State, when he was still dealing with sanctions. He alluded to how he didn’t know what he was walking into. He didn't quite get the full story during the interview process of what was going on as they were selling him the job. And I thought he was pretty open about that.

We talked about some of the adversity. He talked about 2016 and the crowd chanting, 'fire Franklin' as he walked off the field [at halftime of the Minnesota game]. And then they turn around and win the Big 10 Championship. I thought was really cool. I asked him in my last interview, 'Do you ever think that the fans will fully appreciate what you've done here in your 10 years?' And he said, 'No, but no one gives a s---.' I think it was his exact quote. So I thought that was a pretty neat answer.