Princeton @ Penn State

[ScottishSteel]

4 minutes ago, Nak21 said:

The check. 6 figures. I doubt Princeton got paid to come AND if they did, it likely was a small amount to cover travel, lodging and meals for a day/night, MAYBE MAYBE a small “appearance fee”. Even at PSU, wrestling is a non-revenue sport, an AD loss leader, a dual at Rec Hall might bring in what? maybe $100-200k revenue tops with tickets, concessions and merchandise. But PSU in a money losing sport is paying a team like Princeton 6 figures to come take a beating?? Please. I don’t buy it, you mentioned you worked for PSU athletics before, provide some AD work documents showing PSU is paying the Princeton’s of the world big money to come to Rec Hall for wrestling, otherwise this is just the pastry being the pastry.

Well you are right - worked as in past tense so no I can't just produce documents since I don't work there anymore (and even if I did I definitely wouldn't put non-public work documents on an internet message board - that's an asinine and unrealistic demand) but I can tell you that in my experiences I would be very surprised if Princeton didn't get paid and probably more than you think too.  This is coming from 10 years at Penn St as well as 10 years combined at two different institutions on the other side of the spectrum - the institutions getting the paychecks to take an L (one of which I know got paid by Penn St both when I was there and when I was at Penn St).

While yes, obviously football and basketballs make the headlines on it and those paychecks are big time bucks; buy games happen in sports like hockey and wrestling as well - especially if there's no return trip; like PSU-Drexel this year.  It's definitely not 6 figures on the Olympic sports level but a couple multiple of 10k? Almost definitely

[1032004]

29 minutes ago, Nak21 said:

Here, I’ll help, pg 51, “Guarantees - Men’s Wrestling $18,000” 

Thats what was paid out for the whole season to opponents during the reporting year.

https://storage.googleapis.com/gopsusports-prod/2026/02/05/IW8b4ZXbrdkZIDoc9OFKuwsOMrNWoYNqwPs8w3Gl.pdf

Interesting…although on page 84 they list total operating expenses for the wrestling team as $7.9 million and I don’t see nearly that much listed in the subsections…also, is it possible the “guarantee” is actually NLWC donating to NJRTC?

Edited February 22 by 1032004

[Nak21]

1 hour ago, ScottishSteel said:

Well you are right - worked as in past tense so no I can't just produce documents since I don't work there anymore (and even if I did I definitely wouldn't put non-public work documents on an internet message board - that's an asinine and unrealistic demand) but I can tell you that in my experiences I would be very surprised if Princeton didn't get paid and probably more than you think too.  This is coming from 10 years at Penn St as well as 10 years combined at two different institutions on the other side of the spectrum - the institutions getting the paychecks to take an L (one of which I know got paid by Penn St both when I was there and when I was at Penn St).

While yes, obviously football and basketballs make the headlines on it and those paychecks are big time bucks; buy games happen in sports like hockey and wrestling as well - especially if there's no return trip; like PSU-Drexel this year.  It's definitely not 6 figures on the Olympic sports level but a couple multiple of 10k? Almost definitely

It’s not really, the documents are pretty much publicly available, it’s a state school. I found financials in about 30secs. And no, they likely dont pay like that unless last year was an anomaly, I doubt it was. Sure they throw some reimbursement, but it’s penny’s to the overall AD budget and even minuscule in wrestlings financials. This isn’t football with major pay to take a beating games in the 7 figures. They paid $18k last year. I bet that was reimbursing 2-3 teams for travel, food and lodging. 

[Nak21]

1 hour ago, 1032004 said:

Interesting…although on page 84 they list total operating expenses for the wrestling team as $7.9 million and I don’t see nearly that much listed in the subsections…also, is it possible the “guarantee” is actually NLWC donating to NJRTC?

I didn’t bust out the calculator but in my head I got well north of $5m. Coaches salaries aren’t specified, just given a rough number, that could account for a bit. I’m not an accountant, but I’m gonna trust PSU isn’t playing any games here on a public document…outside of the normal GAAP game everyone plays. Different schools have different methods of classifying revenue, etc etc.

NLWC to my understanding has nothing to do with the university and wouldn’t be on their books. Guarantees were pretty well spelled out as reimbursement to teams for travel, lodging, meals, etc.

Edited February 22 by Nak21

[The_KC_Godfather]

9 hours ago, Southend said:

How can you, or anyone else, as a matter of fact, seriously question C. Sanderson? When he quits bringing in the hardware, Big Ten, NCAA, then this might be a legitimate thread to start. Good God! The short sightedness is astounding. 

How dare I! This is definitely a strategic move by Cael to get his team ready for March. It has to be what @Nak21 said…to help them with their homework because that literally could be the only logical explanation for them to schedule a duel against Princeton. As if they don’t already dominate the best in the country…let’s invite #36 to come see what they’re made of.

Cael must have had leftover NIL money that had to be used up and Braeden needed a tutor. Let’s not use that extra NIL money to travel to Okie State

[ScottishSteel]

7 hours ago, Nak21 said:

It’s not really, the documents are pretty much publicly available, it’s a state school. I found financials in about 30secs. And no, they likely dont pay like that unless last year was an anomaly, I doubt it was. Sure they throw some reimbursement, but it’s penny’s to the overall AD budget and even minuscule in wrestlings financials. This isn’t football with major pay to take a beating games in the 7 figures. They paid $18k last year. I bet that was reimbursing 2-3 teams for travel, food and lodging. 

You found an overall summary which is indeed a public document; you demanded proof of the individual contracts which would say exactly what they are paying each school which would be a non-public document.  But I digress, that's a past life of mine so mute moving forward.  But let's work with the number you found.  If you look at visiting teams from last year:

 - Drexel
 - Wyoming
 - Michigan St
 - Iowa
 - Michigan
 - Maryland
 - American

Obviously you can rule out the conference opponents; and Drexel and Wyoming both got Penn St as a home opponent this year (those are most likely 2 for 1 contracts; they travel twice to State College and Penn St travels once to them).  That is a common scheduling trend for Penn St wrestling and other Olympic sports; another example of recent history is Oregon St traveling to PA twice (Rec Hall and Spooky Nook) before the Nittany Lions making the trek to Corvallis.  I would suspect that Oklahoma is on something similar and that started this year. 

That leaves American - who would have gotten all of that $18K listed in the doc that you found.  Being as this is a frequent scheduling pattern for Penn St and Penn St never or almost never does a return trip for their final non-con opponent of the year (I didn't look at every schedule so I won't speak in absolutes) I would expect that whomever is coming for that final match in Rec Hall every year to be going home w/ a check for their time and efforts; likely in the 20k range which is what I speculated it would be in my post ("a multiple of 10k").

The 6 figure bit was always a fallacy and exaggeration by Jimmy.  I merely asked what part of his original statement you were disputing and you said "I doubt Princeton got paid to come".   All I did was push back on that notion and say they almost definitely did . . . which logically can be concluded, based on patterns from previous financials, that Princeton did get paid.  Now I don't know what constitutes a "small appearance fee" to you as you conceded was a possibility in your initial response to me and I responded with "paid probably more than you think" so this could be us circling the drain with the same financials in mind there but defining it differently and it's not worth arguing over semantics there as neither of those statements had a defined value at the time.

20k to Penn St's wrestling budget is nothing; but 20k to Princeton's wrestling budget? They can make that go a long way; having worked at two small schools besides Penn St - it's remarkable how far they can stretch those dollars.  

[1032004]

8 hours ago, Nak21 said:

I didn’t bust out the calculator but in my head I got well north of $5m. Coaches salaries aren’t specified, just given a rough number, that could account for a bit. I’m not an accountant, but I’m gonna trust PSU isn’t playing any games here on a public document…outside of the normal GAAP game everyone plays. Different schools have different methods of classifying revenue, etc etc.

NLWC to my understanding has nothing to do with the university and wouldn’t be on their books. Guarantees were pretty well spelled out as reimbursement to teams for travel, lodging, meals, etc.

Sorry the NLWC comment was a separate thought, which I know would be separate from PSU funds.  For the record I have no clue what if anything Princeton got paid, and I do agree it’s unlikely it would be hiding in the public numbers.  I mostly was just surprised to see expenses (and revenues - looks like wrestling was second only to football) that high.

[Nak21]

3 hours ago, 1032004 said:

Sorry the NLWC comment was a separate thought, which I know would be separate from PSU funds.  For the record I have no clue what if anything Princeton got paid, and I do agree it’s unlikely it would be hiding in the public numbers.  I mostly was just surprised to see expenses (and revenues - looks like wrestling was second only to football) that high.

Well. Football drives the whole AD ship and always has, so no surprise there. Wrestling is the most successful program on campus lately so I’m happy they’re getting support. Usually it’s PSU abysmal Mens basketball program draining funds. I’d like to see W Volleyball, M Lacrosse, M and W Hockey get even more financial love and see what they can do with it.

College athletics is and always has been big money and have and have nots.

[Southend]

19 hours ago, The_KC_Godfather said:

How dare I! This is definitely a strategic move by Cael to get his team ready for March. It has to be what @Nak21 said…to help them with their homework because that literally could be the only logical explanation for them to schedule a duel against Princeton. As if they don’t already dominate the best in the country…let’s invite #36 to come see what they’re made of.

Cael must have had leftover NIL money that had to be used up and Braeden needed a tutor. Let’s not use that extra NIL money to travel to Okie State

There you go trying to second guess Cael. He doesn’t need your logic or anyone else’s. What he does or doesn’t do, is what everybody else needs. You don’t question success.