James Franklin makes statement on current state of college football

Coaches are facing challenges they haven’t faced before in changes to college athletics like NIL and the Transfer Portal. With those changes in mind and concern about the future, Penn State head coach James Franklin made a statement on the current state of college football.

Franklin began by acknowledging that the model is driven by money, which impacts how people view things, before diving into what he sees as issues today.

“Well, first of all, let me say this,” James Franklin said. “I know really nobody wants to hear from college football complaining about the current model because of the money. I get that. I do. So, I kind of want to kind of preface my statement.”

Recently, the Big Ten and SEC formed a joint advisory group to try and address changes in the sport, including NIL and the Transfer Portal. It’s a move that Franklin has taken the time to praise because he believes that the way things are now is bad for everyone.

“But I do think the Big Ten and the SEC commissioners taking a leadership role in this is really important because it’s not headed in a good direction really for anybody. I don’t think it’s the right thing for players. I think you guys have heard me speak on this before. I think when coaches went too far and were limiting where players could transfer to, they were abusing that. We went from one extreme to the other. You can’t tell me that it’s good for the student-athletes to transfer three, four times. Every time you transfer, the likelihood of graduating goes down. I don’t think that’s in anybody’s best interest. The ability to overcome adversity I think in college athletics is really important. I think we’ve lost some of that. The path of least resistance.”

Several sitting college head coaches have recently left their jobs to take roles where they wouldn’t be a head coach. Among the most notable was Jeff Hafley of Boston College, who left for the NFL to be a coordinator and sparked concern.

James Franklin is among those concerned by those moves and he thinks the reason behind them comes down to not having enough chance to coach in college today.

“Obviously, when you get into NIL, that’s a factor. I think what you’re seeing is my biggest concern is you’re having people leave college football that would have never left college football because a lot of the head coaching positions, coordinator positions and assistant coaching positions, it’s gotten further and further away for what they signed up for. Everybody knew you had to recruit to coach them. There was a balance between those two. But all these other things are taking you further, further away from coaching and developing kids,” Franklin said.

“‘Development’ is like a word that isn’t even used anymore. It’s like I told the players when they showed up on campus and their parents, You came here because we want to develop you. If you decide to jump in the transfer portal a year from now, you don’t give us the time to develop you. You’re almost forcing us to go into the transfer portal. Teams that are heavily transfer portal teams, they’re basically saying, We’re not going to develop, we’re just going to go out and get guys that we know are proven commodities and have them come to campus. There’s a fine line between all of this.”

The money that is in college athletics is massive. The College Football Playoff recently agreed with ESPN on a media rights extension worth $7.8 billion over six years. On top of that, the Big Ten agreed on a media deal worth more than $7 billion back in 2022. That’s before ticket prices, concessions, in-stadium advertisements, and donations from boosters are taken into account. It’s a lot of money and has led to concern from Franklin that people are getting into college athletics for the wrong reasons.

“The thing that probably concerns me the most is I worried probably five or more years ago when the money kept going up that I think college football started to attract people into the industry for the wrong reasons. Maybe I’m old school, but I still truly believe that if you’re coaching college football, you should be coaching it because you care about the kids and their total development, academically, athletically, socially, spiritually, the whole package. I think because of the changes, people were getting into college football for things that didn’t align with that. So, we’ve been on a slippery slope for a while,” Franklin said.

“The reality is the college football that we’ve all known, the college athletics that we’ve all known, that’s not coming back. You’re going to have to embrace the current model that we’re in, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t make it better and can’t still get back to something that I think is in the student-athlete’s best interest long-term, long-term, as well as still be able to complement what’s happening in a university setting, which I think has also been something that’s been very, very important for a long time. But there’s going to have to be some tough decisions that are made from people that are in the position of power to get those things done. If not, you’re going to continue to see coaches leaving college football and you’re going to continue to see student-athletes transferring three and four times. Again, I don’t think that’s in their best interest either for what we’re really trying to accomplish here. Again, long-term.”

Ultimately, James Franklin is still looking for a solution but emphasized that he is concerned these changes aren’t inherently good for student-athletes.

“I know I’m talking a lot right now. I think that’s where you’re trying to find a balance. What do we need to do short-term for the student-athletes, which they deserve? What also is going to still prepare them long-term for sustained success? We’ve all heard really challenging stories about professional athletes when they get done playing and the real world hits them, the reality of the real world hits them and they’re not prepared for that because they don’t know what the next stage of their life is.” Franklin said.

“I think you’re going to see that really push forward because you’re having college athletes that are not going to have the opportunity to go pro afterward, and they’re going to get hit with reality a lot sooner. A lot of things have to happen. I love that the Big Ten and the SEC are taking leadership roles and hopefully can do what’s best for everybody because we need that right now.”