Its not the available money that’s the issue, but where the boosters and the school choose to spend it. PSU wrestling has far more available money than any other college for wrestling. Not only in NIL, but in their wrestling club which pays graduated but still active wrestlers to train there and work out with current wrestlers.
Theoretically, there are only 9.9 scholarships available to wrestling, but somehow PSU has more than 20 highly sought-after former HS stars on its roster. And, most of them are from out of state, where the cost of paying your own room and board would be prohibitive.
Three current world champions train at the wrestling club. I believe two former champions also do. One of them, David Taylor, was a 4-time state champion in HS in Colorado and then Ohio. Somehow, when he went to PSU his HS GF (now wife) got a full scholarship too.
They have a stable of donors who give big money every year, through the club and NIL, to keep their wrestling on top. The gulf between them and other schools is widening, not narrowing. Iowa, which used to be the standard, can’t keep pace.
I don’t think there is the passion among PSU boosters for basketball that there is for wrestling. I remember going to basketball games there when I worked for The Pitt News in a 3/4 empty gym. And, we were their big rivals then. Later, both wrestling and volleyball (when they were dominant) outdrew basketball.
The wrestling money will never be transferred to basketball. Those boosters live and die with wrestling. The football money won’t be transferred either. They are trying desperately to catch tOSU and Michigan, both of which have even more resources.
I just don’t see PSU BB ever being more than an occasional surprise winner, which means finishing in the top 5 of the B10.
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