James Franklin explains how recruiting works at a home College Football Playoff game

Ahead of the Penn State Nittany Lions‘ first trip to the College Football Playoff, head coach James Franklin shared his approach to recruiting and how that process works at a home Playoff game.
This season is, of course, the first year that any teams are able to host Playoff games in the first round. That, as Franklin explained, makes this a home game for Penn State. However, it doesn’t make it the same as a regular season game as far as recruiting is concerned.
“Although this is a Penn State home game, it is not our game,” James Franklin said. “This game is really run by the Playoff and we don’t even control the tickets. So, we don’t get recruiting tickets. We don’t get anything. All the ticket revenue goes to the College Football Playoff. Although it is a home game for us, we don’t gain any advantages that way.”
This creates a situation where Penn State, or any of the other schools that are hosting a Playoff game, won’t be able to directly provide access to the game for recruits and their families. However, for the coaching staff, there is still a way to showcase this type of game to recruits even if they’re not on campus.
“If recruits want to come to the game, they’re welcome to come to the game, but they’re going to have to buy their own tickets and those types of things. It’s not like a home game where we’re able to provide tickets and things like that,” Franklin said.
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“So, there’s advantages, but not as much of an advantage from a recruiting perspective as people may think, other than, obviously, really good players are still able to watch us continue to play this season.”
Following the Early Signing Day, Penn State has the 14th-ranked class in the 2025 recruiting cycle, according to the On3 Industry Football Team Recruiting Rankings. That class is fourth among Big Ten schools. There is still time to add to that class before it’s finalized. On top of that, James Franklin and the Penn State staff will be working on the Class of 2026 and the Transfer Portal while they play in and prepare for their first College Football Playoff game.
That Playoff game will be on December 21st when Penn State hosts SMU for a 12:00 p.m. EST kickoff.