James Franklin reveals how much coordination Big Ten coaches have on polarizing topics in college football

The future of college athletics has been up in the air and, with that, come different proposals on how to change things. Within that, there tends to be some synergy among teams within a single conference, like the Big Ten, about otherwise polarizing topics impacting college football.

Penn State head coach James Franklin is aware that he often has similar opinions to opposing Big Ten coaches. That includes the recent move to limit the Transfer Portal to one window, which has seen Franklin seem to publicly agree with coaches like Ryan Day. However, that doesn’t stem from a particular coordination according to Franklin. It comes from meetings and discussions that the coaches have with one another.

“I think there is a decent amount of — I don’t know if I would describe it as coordination,” Franklin said. “But when we go to Big Ten meetings, we have discussions about this. As you know, I don’t want to talk about a whole lot other than Villanova, but I get the question. I think it really just comes down to that he feels, and I think most of the coaches in the Big Ten feel, that you don’t want to be playing a season and dealing with the Transfer Portal at the same time.”

The NCAA Football Oversight Committee voted to support a single portal window. That would make the portal into one 10-day window that opens on January 2nd, rather than in December and following Spring practice. That way, most teams would have their season over, though some College Football Playoff teams would have to deal with both. It would also set rosters in stone going into spring practice.

That’s a proposal that SEC coaches have largely supported in public. The likes of Day and Franklin have pushed back against it, though. Day argued that the majority of Big Ten coaches agree that moving it to January is bad because of the position it would put Playoff teams in at that point. Franklin, meanwhile, has advocated for the portal to come after the season has come to an end entirely.

“I think there’s some other conferences that probably wouldn’t disagree with that,” Franklin said. “But it’s hard to find a spot in the calendar that makes sense for everybody based on all the different academic calendars. I don’t think anybody thinks it’s a good idea to have it during the season. Right? So, I gave you a little bit, but I’d prefer to just talk about Villanova.”

The new model for the Transfer Portal is not set yet. The vote requires approval from the Administrative Committee by October 1st. If that doesn’t happen, this model won’t begin this season and would have to be pushed until at least next year.