Which Penn State Football Players Would Have Benefited From NIL?

1. Saquon Barkley

Saquon Barkley was arguably the biggest star in college football during his three-year run terrorizing Big Ten defenses from 2015-2017.

Barkley was a two-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, a two-time First-Team All-Big Ten, a two-time Ameche-Dayne Running Back of the Year award winner, the 2017 Paul Hornung Award winner and a consensus All-American in 2017.

Barkley helped rejuvenate the Penn State fan base as the program came out of the sanction era and won the Big Ten championship in 2016.

He, along with the rest of 2016 team, became rockstars. Barkley especially did though because he was the team’s best player and was a national star.  He is so beloved in Pennsylvania that March 14, 2018 was celebrated as “Saquon Barkley Day” in the commonwealth.

Barkley, now entering his fifth year in the NFL, has endorsement deals with the likes of Nike, Pepsi, Dunkin’ Donuts, Visa, Hulu and has appeared in commercials for Gillette and Campbell’s.

Imagine if Barkley was able to just have a fraction of these endorsements during his Penn State days. Additionally, Barkley has his own Nike clothing line, something that could have at least been started during his Penn State career.

The way sponsors jumped at Barkley the second he was drafted says a lot about how marketable they thought he was. With a degree in journalism, a post-playing career in broadcasting could also been in the works for Barkley down the road.

Barkley is one of the most beloved Penn State Football players of all time and one of the most endorsed players in the NFL. If NIL was around in 2016 and 2017, Barkley would have knocked it out of the park.