For Penn State football – and athletics at large – the addition of UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten poses challenges that are both in and out of its control.
On the one hand, Penn State can’t do anything about the fact those programs are – generally – very good at football. There’s no mechanism that allows for Penn State to somehow change that fact overnight. That’s just the way it is. All four of these programs are closer to Penn State than the lower tier of the league and all four will create another obstacle for Penn State to overcome any given season on and off the field.
On the other hand it provides Penn State with some clarity of purpose. The days of hoping for one or two programs to have a down year has gone by the wayside. There are too many other quality teams to think you can just sit around and wait for everyone to get out of the way. In the eyes of Penn State AD Pat Kraft, he is steadfast in his belief that Penn State is the only thing that can stop Penn State.
So ask him what the ramifications are of four quality athletic departments joining the conference and the race to being the Big Ten’s best. His answer is straightforward.
“Insignificant. I don’t care,” Kraft said. “I’m worried about one thing: Us. We control our own fate. That’s not disparaging them at all. What am I going to; what are you going to do. Gotta get better. It’s a Penn State thing. It’s not an Oregon thing. Ain’t UCLA. Ain’t about USC. It ain’t about Washington. It’s a Penn State thing and we’ve got to be Penn State.”
Kraft’s boldness verbally matches his actions so far a year into his tenure as Penn State’s Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics. Under his watch the department is set to undertake arguably the most robust series of facilities upgrades and renovations that the department has ever seen, coming in at around $70 million in approved budgets. Couple that with Beaver Stadium’s renovations package at over half a billion and you’re left with a department going at things full steam ahead.
Whether or not Kraft has bitten off more than he can chew remains to be seen, but Kraft doesn’t appear interested in a kind of tentative approach that could leave the Nittany Lions constantly playing catchup. To his credit as well, his vision appears all encompassing. For as much as Penn State hangs its financial hat on the success of football, Kraft appears an enthusiastic participant in legitimately trying to win in each and every sport on campus.
Big Ten expansion isn’t just about football after all.
“We can win the whole thing,” Kraft said. “We just have to keep focusing on doing what’s right for us, and it’s dealing with all of this that’s going around … continuing to bring the right kids that want to run through a wall and fight through it and are passionate like we have. And I’m not making that up. I don’t lose sleep over it. I may have if I was in other jobs. Not here. By the way, it’s not just a football thing. Baseball has gotten a lot better. Basketball is going to get; volleyball, all of our sports, soccer is going to get more challenging. Okay. I’m at Penn State. We’re 31 deep, we’ll just keep getting better.”
For all of the bravado Kraft isn’t short on the self awareness that talk is cheap but new buildings aren’t. He has quietly noted in interviews over the past year that Penn State can only do the things it can pay for. It has turned fundraising into even more of an existential requirement of the job, an area where Kraft would likely aspire to do better than his predecessor and mend whatever bridges might be in need of such tender love and care.
Because Kraft might be ambitious, but he knows that what Penn State can accomplish is very much linked to the leg work that goes into building the things it needs to get there. Rome won’t be built in a day, but it’ll need to built quickly.
“But all of these things I mentioned to you have to get done. We have to get all of these – the nutrition, the travel, the mental health support, the physical support, all of these things have to get done or we won’t be able to achieve what we want to do,” Kraft said. “That’s why I’m so aggressive to get it ready, so that we can attack those. They are coming and it’s going to be a different day, one that we are all excited about.”
