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Penn State football's James Franklin took a controversial stance on the College Football Playoff. The first year of the new twelve-team field provided plenty of drama for the 2024 season. With more teams vying for spots, there were more resumes to choose from among the committee, all leading to a thrilling race down the stretch. The Nittany Lions were safely in this field and made a deep run in the playoff to the semifinals. The season ended in a close defeat to Notre Dame.
Franklin's program is poised for another run at the playoff. Still, the Nittany Lions' head coach gave an eye-opening statement on potentially tweaking the current format to more automatic bids for the major conferences.
“The majority of people that have strong opinions have an agenda and are biased based on what’s good for them. Right? I think the reason the Big Ten and the SEC feel like there’s an argument for more (automatic bids) is because of a lot of the things that I’ve also brought up in the past, the discrepancies or things that are not even or balanced in the sport. Our conferences are built differently, everybody shouldn’t get the same vote. (The Big Ten has) more teams in our conference now and have a greater level of competition week-in and week-out, why should it be balanced?
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I think that’s the discussion everybody is kind of having if that makes sense. That’s the challenge, and that’s where, to me, 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. Everybody’s 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.’ … That would help the Playoff committee at the end of the year make decisions.”
Time will tell whether there are any changes to the original format. No matter what, Penn State football is in very good shape heading into 2025. Quarterback Drew Allar is back in Happy Valley, and this team is projected to be within the top 5. The Nittany Lions have a reasonable nonconference slate before opening Big Ten play at home against Oregon. After losing to the Ducks in the Big Ten Championship last season, getting some much-needed revenge for that defeat would be just what the doctor ordered for this program. Then, of course, later on is a trip to Columbus to take on the defending national champs.
Overall, Penn State football will have a massive opportunity in 2025 to finally get over that championship hump. Franklin is keeping an eye on the long-term future with his comments on the College Football Playoff's future because any alterations to the format of automatic bids and byes will take time to come into effect. But this program is in healthy shape and has the talent to beat anyone on any stage.
