Sports Illustrated columnist Noah Henderson recently praised Penguin City Brewing and the way it helps Youngstown State University athletes through the Name, Image & Likeness program.

Henderson reviews local craft beers that benefit a University's NIL program. He spoke highly of Penguin City Light beer, writing about its "traditional malt flavor that hits the spot."

Henderson also praised the Penguin City Light Beer can, calling it "the coolest he's ever seen." The can is all black featuring a fierce Pete the Penguin.

"It's just a really nice can," said Aspasia Lyras-Bernacki, co-owner of Penguin City Brewing. "I love that it resonated with the writers at Sports Illustrated."

Every year, Penguin City's brand manager comes up with a fresh new can that highlights Youngstown State University. A portion of its sales go to Penguin Collective, then distributed to YSU athletes through NIL deals.

Penguin Collective is composed of Youngstown-Warren area accounting and legal professionals that help local YSU student-athletes build their personal brands and provide them with opportunities to monetize endorsements using their name, image, and likeness.

"We've been partners with YSU's athletic department since 2019," said Lyras-Bernacki.

"The Penguin Collective got in touch with us, they also work with YSU athletics. They said, we all have to tie this together so we started working with them. We went into partnership in the summer and it's been really good."

Much like players work together on the hardwood, these partnerships go a long way in helping put YSU at the forefront of the NIL world.

"We've done a really good job here at YSU," said Tyler Burk, director of NIL at Youngstown State University.

"We've been the number one earning school in the Horizon League when it comes to NIL for the last few years. Our men's basketball team, football team, both have killed it," said Burk.

"A couple years ago, in the entire Horizon League, we had the top three highest-earning student athletes across all sports and they were three women's basketball players here at YSU."

YSU student athletes have landed deals with Youngstown Clothing Company, Dunkin Donuts and multiple other local businesses.

"In 2023, our student-athletes earned over $500,000 in NIL deals," said Burk. "2024, we're just wrapping up but we think we're similar in that ballpark and we're going to look to grow that for 2025."

Burk highlighted the importance for top-notch NIL programs in order to build winning teams at Youngstown State University. It circles back to community support.

"The community really stepped up when it comes to this new venture of NIL," said Burk. "The NIL has grown like wildfire over the last couple years and it's become really important in the college athletics space for YSU to be competitive to have a good NIL program."

Aside from making a donation, community members and fans can support YSU athletes through a new NIL store launched in August. The athletes get a percentage from the sales.

You can also visit the University's NIL Marketplace and resource page here.