Franklin says Big Ten is best conference in football

With four teams ranked inside the College Football Playoff rankings' top-seven, it's tough to argue against James Franklin's thinking.

The Penn State coach sat at the Lucas Oil Stadium podium Friday ahead of Saturday's Big Ten Championship game and lauded the conference this season.

With the Nittany Lions (10-2, 8-1) and Badgers (10-2, 7-2) playing for the title while Michigan (10-2) and Ohio State (11-1) sit at home and watch, the conference's top dogs this year have carried the banner and generated plenty of buzz.

"I'd make the argument right now that the Big Ten, and specifically the Big Ten East, is the best conference in all of college football," Franklin said. "That's no disrespect to any conference all across the country. They're great, but we've got a pretty good thing going in our conference."

Franklin may have a point. The Southeastern Conference, normally college football's juggernaut, has No. 1 Alabama, but not much outside of the Crimson Tide. The Atlantic Coast Conference and Pac-12 have a team each in the top-four, but again, not much depth behind it.

We'll see if an 11-2 Big Ten champion, whether it's Penn State or Wisconsin, gets into the four-team playoff, which would further demonstrate the widespread respect of the conference this season.

This story was originally published December 2, 2016 at 7:41 PM with the headline "Franklin says Big Ten is best conference in football."