The active Penn State alumni in the NFL are earning $253M in active contracts, which is actually near the top of College Football.
If you said that Penn State alumni in the NFL rank inside the Top-10 in all of College Football for the highest amount of active contracts, that would be a tough sell. Whether it is believable or not, it is the reality.
According to Spotrac, the Nittany Lions active NFL players are on contracts that total $253M, which is good for the eighth highest in all of College Football. They aren't exactly in striking distance of Ohio State, which checks in at the No. 1 spot with nearly $450M in contracts.
That certainly checks out, but for Penn State, they are in the same neighborhood as Notre Dame, Clemson, USC, and Michigan. They are over $100M more than a handful of SEC programs, such as Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, and Texas, who all stand out in a negative way on this list.
For Penn State, it is certainly quality over quantity. There are currently 59 former Nittany Lions on NFL rosters right now. This is a solid number, and compared to the Buckeyes, who have 69, it is within shouting distance.
Some of the top earners for the Nittany Lions are the obvious ones: Saquon Barkley, Micah Parsons, and Abdul Carter are at the top of the list. Chris Godwin is a guy who has had a really strong NFL career, along with Pat Friermuth and Jaquon Brisker, who are now teammates together in Pittsburgh.
The obvious goal for Penn State is to continue to climb this list. It will likely be a challenge over the next couple of years as the Nittany Lions don't necessarily have top-end talent on their roster as it sits right now.
However, that could change quickly. They were just one win away in 2025 from competing for a National Championship and totally opening the flood gates of their program. Instead, they blew the game against Notre Dame and then endured the disaster that was last season.
A lot is going to look different as many players transferred out after James Franklin was fired from his job.
Now, as Matt Campbell took over, he is charged with changing the culture and re-establishing Penn State as a winner. If he does those two things, the very natural result will be these players being much higher draft assets. It's all ultimately going to be up to the play that happens on the field in the fall.
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