Why Penn State’s James Franklin believes conferences need more equality in scheduling
Penn State head coach James Franklin has not been shy in recent years sharing his opinions about what is best for college football. And as one of two Big Ten head coaches that was also a head coach in the SEC — along with Illinois’ Bret Bielema — he’s taken an even greater step forward in spearheading the changes he desires.
Wednesday in Las Vegas at Big Ten media days, that meant discussing creating an equal playing field for conferences.
“Everybody has to play the same number of conference games,” Franklin said. “This ain’t that hard. Everybody should be playing eight, or everybody should be playing nine.”
Franklin has previously said the College Football Playoff selection committee’s job is hard enough, and unequal conference schedules only add to that issue. And many within the Big Ten have stated that inequality impacts why the conference is against a playoff expansion that just adds four additional at-large bids. The issue has played a role in how teams, such as those in the Big Ten, do their nonconference scheduling because those teams are already playing nine Power-4 teams.
That decreases the incentive for Big Ten programs to schedule difficult nonconference games, while the SEC has to schedule a Power-4 opponent to get to a total of nine each season because of its eight-game conference schedule.
Franklin harped on that inequality in Las Vegas, and went even further when discussing the Big Ten’s decision to move to nine conference games that began in 2016.
“When the Big Ten first went to nine games, you could make the argument, [it was] maybe the worst decision the Big Ten has ever made,” Franklin said. “Just mathematically, we were gonna have more losses. We were gonna beat each other up.”
In Big Ten Country
The Penn State head coach glowed about the Big Ten being bold and aggressive, but still said there was more that could be stolen from the SEC in order to improve. And that includes the event he was speaking at.
Franklin noted that there’s a West Coast influence to the conference now, and that there should be respect paid to the four West Coast teams in the conference. But that doesn’t mean the conference’s media days should be somewhere like Las Vegas.
“The majority of our teams are near Chicago where this used to always be,” Franklin said. “The majority of our teams are near Indianapolis where this used to be. And it creates a different environment. I walk around the lobby and I don’t see any signage. I don’t see anything for the Big Ten. I don’t see people getting autographs. It’s a different vibe and it’s a different feeling.”
The changes aren’t just about the venue, either. Franklin mentioned that the SEC has done a better job of making sure it stays a consistent part of the national conversation.
“I think that other conference, when they have their meetings, there’s essentially a press conference every single day at the end of the meetings,” Franklin said. “It keeps people talking about that conference at a time of the year that it makes them relevant. We’re not doing that. We need to be talking about the Big Ten and our programs and the things that we have done, and making it as accessible to everybody as we possibly can, and connecting with the fans.”
Overcoming a narrative
Franklin and his team are heading into the season with drastically increased national expectations, and it should be no surprise that his availability on Wednesday centered on his performance in big games — games the 2025 team will certainly be involved in.
He gave many of the same answers he has in the past, about the team needing to get things right against the best teams and needing to be at its best at those times. The program has to take another step forward.
And once a second question was asked about his performance in those games, he reiterated much of what he’d already said, but this time adding that he can’t control the past but is excited for the future.
That’s a big part of this season for Franklin from a perception standpoint. He’s fighting his own narrative about his lack of big game success while trying to lead his team to a title.
But to him, there’s beauty in that.
“We’re in total control of it,” Franklin said. “If we want the narrative to change, we’ve got an opportunity to change it. If we want people to shut up, we can shut ‘em up real easy. We embrace it all.”
Quick hitters
- The Penn State head coach expressed confidence in the defensive tackle group led by Zane Durant and Alonzo Ford. Behind them, he noted it’s a matter of getting consistency from player likes like Xavier Gilliam, Owen Wafle and Ty Blanding.
- When asked about potentially playing a school like Pittsburgh, Franklin said, “I’d be all about a discussion about Pitt. We’ve played Pitt nonconference, we played West Virginia nonconference, we played Auburn non-conference and had success in all of them. The good thing is we all have the ability to build our programs the way we see best. Coach [Pat Narduzzi] has the ability to build his program how he thinks is best. And we have the ability to do that at Penn State as well.” Franklin then spoke about the nonconference scheduling inequity between the Big Ten and SEC and the complications it creates.
