UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Following last year's institution of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), which allowed student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, Ira Lubert received a call from Penn State's former Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour and former President Eric Barron.
"They discussed NIL with me and told me they thought they were pretty far behind," Lubert said. "I did some research, and I went out and got others I felt to be very loyal, dedicated Penn State alumni."
Having served on Penn State's Board of Trustees, Lubert seized the opportunity to assemble a group of dedicated alumni - Mark Toniatti, Bob Poole, Anthony Misitano and Rick Sokolov - to found Success With Honor.
By creating economic opportunities for all 800-plus of the University's student-athletes, the non-profit organization aims to maximize the potential of the Nittany Lions not only as athletes, but as students with career aspirations.
"I call it a work of love," CEO Mark Toniatti said. "It's challenging, but we're in it for the student-athletes, Penn State Athletics and Penn State University."
"I've had nothing but positive experiences, like so many more of my teammates who are getting involved," Penn State redshirt senior Ally Schlegel said. "I've been very grateful that I've interacted with Success With Honor."
Designed to assist Penn State student-athletes with monetizing their brands, the NIL collective offers fans and businesses monthly subscriptions. Benefits offered to subscribers include autographed memorabilia, meet and greet events and virtual training sessions.
The vast majority of Penn State Athletics' student-athletes receive partial or no scholarship money while competing for the Nittany Lions.
Success With Honor therefore helping all 800-plus student-athletes among 31 athletic programs access the resources to maximize both educational and NIL opportunities is a primary motive.
"The idea was to help all 31 sports," Toniatti said. "If we can help out all of our student-athletes - we are working towards that - then that would be the way the Penn State alumni would want us to operate."
"I think it is so important that everybody is being highlighted. Something they've been communicating to us is, 'we want this opportunity to be for everyone,'" Schlegel said. "And they've walked the walk with that concept in all honesty."
Since March, Success With Honor has already helped more than 150 registered student-athletes in more than 20 Penn State sports programs. Recently, the organization announced a partnership with the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County (CBICC) to help connect Penn State student-athletes to local businesses.
In addition, Success With Honor features a volunteer Advisory Board consisting of former Penn State student-athletes and outstanding alumni who have a vested interest in the future of the University's sports programs.
"When you talk to any of them, they'll tell you the love they have for the University. They want this thing to be successful," Toniatti said about the Advisory Board members. "They have been willing to sign on and help Success With Honor."
"It's all people who really are appreciative of the experience they had as Penn State student-athletes and want to give back and help others," Lubert said. "Whenever we reach out for assistance or guidance, they're always there for us."
In spite of the time and funding that has been devoted into building Success With Honor, along with the polarizing nature of the newly implemented NIL rules, the founders' commitment to guiding Penn State's student-athletes has never waned.
"I'm an advocate that somehow the NCAA long before this should have found a way to remunerate student-athletes so that it didn't come to this," Lubert said. "But because it is here, Penn State has to be competitive."
"I just really respect the way they've been able to take this on as the NCAA landscape has changed," Schlegel said. "Success With Honor really speaks to the Penn State alumni community, how much they care about us and how much they've been willing to really charge into these uncharted territories with it and really help all of us student-athletes."
When the group decided to get involved with a fluid and unprecedented development such as the emergence of NIL, they pledged to do it the "Penn State way."
"We wanted to make sure that everything's done in the most honest and ethical way that people could respect," Lubert said. "And with that, we wanted to display this kind of an approach that would motivate our alumni to help our student-athletes."
"We want us to do it by following the federal rules, the state rules, the University rules and the NCAA rules," Toniatti said. "You want to cross all the t's dot all the i's. Make sure if you're doing it the right way…that's our objective."
Through its ongoing commitment to reinvest all profits, Success With Honor has distinguished itself as a NIL collective with standards strategically crafted to benefit its student-athletes to the highest degree.
"No one on the Board will ever make a dollar from Success With Honor," Toniatti said. "We only cover our expenses managing the collective, and never take a profit."
"We have no profit motivation personally, which is what we want and is in the best interest of Penn State student-athletes," Lubert said.
Another manner in which Success with Honor has differentiated itself from other collectives is its emphasis on career building, academic success and financial management.
In June, Success With Honor sent 19 student-athletes to Atlanta for an NIL summit, boasting the largest student representation of any university at the seminar.
"We're introducing many of them to different companies so they can get mentorship or an internship somewhere at the appropriate time," Toniatti said. "Of 800-plus athletes, how many of them are going to turn pro? A very small percentage. So they're all going to be looking to start careers."
"We offer financial advice and guidance to the student-athlete, but we articulate to them how important it is for them to follow up and do the work they're getting paid for," Lubert said. "We also explain to the student-athletes that their earnings in most cases become taxable."
Given the size of his alma mater's alumni base, Toniatti and Lubert are calling on the Penn State community to help take Success With Honor to the next level.
"We have 750,000 alumni, over 170k of them are members of the Alumni Association. We have 107,000 people in Beaver Stadium on a Saturday afternoon," Toniatti said. "If we can get 5% of them, we will become number one in the country by far."
"I want to believe most alumni from Penn State want Success With Honor to help student-athletes have a better college experience," Lubert said. "That's what we're here to do."
