Last year, after the Jerry Sandusky grand jury report was released, Penn State football lost Cars.com as a sponsor and saw its bowl game status drop from a middling Big Ten bowl to the TicketCity. That sort of thing will continue: State Farm Insurance is now also out as a Penn State football sponsor.
Penn State Football Loses Sponsor, Could Hurt School’s Credit Rating
In potentially even worse financial news, Moody’s Investors Service is considering lowering Penn State’s credit rating. As it is, PSU has the second-highest credit rating possible, but news that the football program will have to pay $60 million due to NCAA sanctions, miss out on about $13 million due to Big Ten sanctions, and face other unpredictable financial hits makes their standing quite rocky.
According to the AP’s report, Moody’s wasn’t concerned about the university’s monetary standing until the Freeh report and NCAA punishments came out.
The salvation for PSU could be that hypothesized surge in donations in order to help the school pay that $60 million fine as quickly as possible. A show of force by boosters could mean even more than just paying off a penalty.
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