Penn State’s James Franklin offers his take on ‘the most important thing’ with the playoff
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Franklin urges uniform conference schedules to ensure fair playoff evaluation.
- Coach says formula-based rankings could reduce bias in playoff team selection.
- Penn State boosts receiver depth with transfers, fueling competitive position battles.
The college football world has spent much of the offseason discussing whether the playoff should expand to 16 teams, or whether conference champs deserve automatic byes. But right now that’s not where Penn State head coach James Franklin’s concerns lie.
Instead, he’s much more interested in ensuring the playing field is even, especially between the Big Ten and SEC, which schedule a different number of conference games every season. Franklin said Thursday he wants to ensure, when teams get picked, they’re much easier to judge against each other.
“The most important thing that can happen is all the commissioners getting together, or a commissioner of college football getting everybody together and saying, look everybody’s going to be the same,” Franklin said at a media availability in the Lasch Building on Thursday afternoon. “We’re all going to play the same number of conference games; we’re all going to play the same number of games. We’re all going to play a conference championship game or not. Then I think that would help.”
For the last nine years, the Big Ten has required every member to play in nine conference games. Meanwhile, the SEC has required only eight conference games.
And, as Franklin alluded to, there are discussions about what conference championship weekend could look like moving forward, with options to make it more about having multiple CFP play-in games rather than a sole championship game for each conference.
But determining how to balance the playing field and get all of the conferences on the same page isn’t the only part of the discussion.
Determining how teams are ranked has become a part of it, too. The College Football Playoff selection committee currently decides that, but there has been discussion about going back to a more formula-based ranking like when the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was in effect, between 1998 and 2013.
That’s something Franklin is in favor of, although he acknowledged there could be issues no matter what system is used.
“The problem is, everybody voting, and everybody involved in the process, whether you want to be biased or not, we all are biased,” Franklin said. “So I think in a lot of ways you could make the argument a formula could be better, but we didn’t love the formula, so we went to this other system. But there’s a lot of challenges, right? You got East Coast people voting on this, and they haven’t watched enough of the West Coast games based on the time. ... In my mind, a formula makes the most sense, because it takes the bias out that we all have.”
Rounding out the receiver room
Penn State has added another wide receiver since the last time Franklin spoke, and the head coach was able to discuss what made him so appealing for the 2025 team. Former Syracuse receiver Trebor Pena joined the program in April, and brings with him plenty of value to an offense that was in desperate need of help at the position last season.
“Right away you notice the production,” Franklin said. “As soon as you hear he’s going into the portal, you see the production, and production matters. Also the fact he’s a six-year guy, and I look at college football a little bit like college basketball, maybe a few years back, where I think part of a winning formula or a championship formula is also being a mature team. And there’s a lot of value that comes from that.”
Pena was highly productive for Syracuse last season, racking up 941 yards and nine touchdowns on 84 receptions with the program, but that came in an offense that was more willing to sling the ball than the Nittany Lions were. Penn State threw the ball 437 times in 16 games last year, while the Orange threw it 598 times in only 13 games.
That could point to Pena’s production being more of a product of the offense rather than his own ability, but Penn State wide receivers coach Marques Hagans said what he saw on the field is what makes him believe in the new receiver.
“No matter what system you’re in, universally, football is football,” Hagans said. “Can he run? Can he catch? What can he do with the ball in his hands? And I think time and time again, he proved that every time he touched the ball or they threw it to him. And so just production. And there’s a thing like when you produce, but then when people know it’s you, and they game plan for you, and you still perform, I think that that says a lot. Different systems, but the result that we need is the same — just guys that can get open, that can catch the ball and make something happen with it. And he proved that he can do that on film.”
Pena is the third transfer receiver the Nittany Lions have added to their roster since the 2024 season ended, joining former USC wide receiver Kyron Hudson and former Troy wide receiver Devonte Ross. All three receivers are the current favorites to start for Penn State when they begin games with three wideouts.
That could easily cause a riff in a room that already has talented — but inexperienced — players who may have expected their own roles to increase.
But instead it’s created more competition in a room that was in need of it.
“I’m very upfront with all the guys in the room, and it’s very simple,” Hagans said. “My job is to find the best guys in the country and try to replace the guys in the room, and their job is to ensure that it doesn’t happen. And so when that happens, you get the right guys that just embrace it. It’s always going to be competition. They want to go play on Sundays, it’s going to be competition. As long as we bring the right guys in, the guys within the room should embrace the competition and should want that. And so far, the guys that we’ve brought in, they are that, and I think the guys have embraced that, and I think that is making our room better.”
Quick hitters
- With redshirt freshman defensive end Max Granville out with a long-term injury, Franklin said he expects some of the team’s youth — like Jaylen Harvey, Mason Robinson and others — to step up in his stead.
- Freshman defensive end Daniel Jennings joined the Nittany Lions ahead of schedule, reclassifying as a 2025 recruit instead of 2026. Franklin said the decision was entirely Jennings’ and that the defensive end arrived much bigger than most freshmen do, which should allow him to compete for time.
- While OT Anthony Donkoh, LB Tony Rojas and TE Andrew Rappleyea are not full-go just yet, Franklin said he expects all three to reach that point in their injury recoveries this summer and be ready for fall camp.
This story was originally published June 5, 2025 at 4:54 PM.
