Payton Banks was born and raised in South Orange County California and attended Orange Lutheran High School.  Payton was a two-time first team All CIF Southern Section Division 1AA selection, a two time All Orange County second team selection and contributed to two CIF Division Championships.  He is the first member of the Top 5 All Around Player Award for Orange Lutheran (top 5 in all categories).  He received a full ride basketball scholarship to play at Penn State University (D1 Big Ten conference).  At Penn State he was the first recipient of the Penn State Athletics Phoenix Award, Sportsman of the Year for Penn State Basketball, Co-Captain as a Senior, ranked in the top 10 for 3 pointers in Big Ten and AAC his senior and graduate senior year respectively and was the co-representative at the Big Ten Media Day. He graduated from Penn State University with a B.A. in Integrative Arts.  He completed his fifth year of eligibility at University of Southern Florida (USF) where he become a member of elite NCAA college basketball player list who scored over 1,000 point in their college career.  He was also a Co-Captain at USF.