Penn State's roster value reveled and in a vacuum, it is huge; relatively, it is a modest roster cost.
Penn State is putting together a very good and impressive offseason coming off of a very tough 2025. As Matt Campbell has his sleeves rolled up and is fighting to get Penn State back on the map.
The initial investments in the roster are modest at best, compared to the rest of the Big Ten and the rest of the country.
Penn State's official numbers come in at a total of $25.61M for their entire roster. Some of the top earners are quarterback Rocco Becht ($1.5M), right tackle Anthony Donkoh ($960,000), and left tackle Malachi Goodman($780,000) on the offensive side of the ball.
On defense, the dollars are a little more spread out. The leader in the clubhouse is defensive tackle Keanu Williams ($720,000) and cornerback Audavion Collins ($660,000). The rest of the defense is at or below $500,000.
I'm not naive to the fact that these dollar figures in a vacuum are massive, especially for college football. However, compared to the rest of college football and the rest of the Big Ten, it is hardly anything at all.
Penn State checks in as the sixth most expensive roster in the conference, but more importantly, they are nearly $20M less expensive than Ohio State's roster and $17M less than Oregon's.
On the national scale, Penn State doesn't even crack the Top-25. They are about $700,000 cheaper than Mississippi State ($26.3M). Some of the other programs that are in striking distance of Penn State are Nebraska, Colorado, Arkansas, Auburn, Houston, and Clemson.
Again, this is probably the teams that Penn State should be mentioned with, but it is not who they want to be mentioned with. The Nittany Lions believe that they should be in the same tier as the Buckeyes, Texas ($47M), Notre Dame ($40M), and Miami ($44M).
Gone are the days that teams just need to dig a little bit deeper on Saturdays or practice a little bit harder on Wednesdays or lift a little bit harder on Tuesdays to compete with the best. While that is still important, dollars are going to tell the story of College Football until all of this gets figured out.
Matt Campbell is doing everything he can to change the program, but it may get pretty challenging when the football is actually kicked off in the fall.
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