Franklin urges PSU to embrace new rules

College sports are changing at a rapid pace because of two decisions made by the NCAA in the last few years.

Athletes now can transfer from one school to another and play right away without sitting out a year, like they had to do for decades.

They also can receive money from name, image and likeness deals based on their fame and celebrity without jeopardizing their eligibility and without their schools violating NCAA rules.

Those two rules were admirably aimed at benefiting athletes. Their unintended consequences, however, have created free agency.

“I prefer not to have the changes that we’ve had, but you better embrace them,” Penn State football coach James Franklin said. “Whether you totally agree with the transfer portal or whether you totally agree with NIL, the reality is that you have to embrace them.”

That’s the message Franklin sent repeatedly Wednesday during his National Signing Day press conference, to the Penn State administration, his staff, his players, alumni and fans.

Penn State is behind Ohio State and other perennial contenders for the national championship when it comes to the transfer portal and especially when it comes to NIL. The Nittany Lions don’t have someone coordinating their efforts in either area, unlike other schools.

“Name, image and likeness is something that we’ve been pushing and talking about for two years in the football building,” Franklin said. “This was brought up, that we needed to have a plan, to be aggressive and to be bold with this area. “We’re not there yet.” Ohio State, the gold standard in the Big Ten, announced last month that 220 student-athletes are engaged in 608 NIL “activities” with a total compensation of $2.98 million, or $13,545 per athlete. The Buckeyes proclaimed they lead the country in NIL compensation.

Maybe not.

Alabama football coach Nick Saban said last summer that quarterback Bryce Young had a deal to make almost seven figures before he made his first college start for the Crimson Tide. It was reported to be $800,000 for the guy who wound up winning the 2021 Heisman Trophy.

Texas boosters launched a $10 million fund to pay Longhorns athletes. In a separate deal, all Texas scholarship offensive linemen will be paid $50,000 apiece by a nonprofit organization “to support charitable causes.”

At Miami, a booster struck a $392,000 deal that will pay 20 football players between $30,000 and $50,000 apiece to promote a product called Life Wallet.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Grambling will soon have a deal to pay all of its scholarship athletes.

We haven’t heard that Penn State has any deals similar to those, which is why Franklin urged the athletic department and boosters to become more involved.

“We have an unbelievable opportunity at Penn State with our alumni base, our brand and our national reputation,” Franklin said. “We have tremendous opportunities with the education and the foundation that our men and women leave Penn State with.

“We have to be bold. We have to be aggressive. We have to embrace it. I’d love to see us be on the front end and the leader nationally in these areas. But we’re not there yet. That’s clear. That’s obvious. We have some work to do.”

Like it or not, college athletes can now be paid in the open. That’s unlike the past when players were paid under the table by some schools for bogus jobs in violation of then-NCAA rules.

Texas A&M finished with what 247 Sports ranked as the greatest football recruiting class of all time Wednesday. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Aggies boosters were rumored last month to have committed $25 million in NIL deals to help recruiting efforts.

If you’re not willing to play by the new rules, you could be left far behind the schools that are. The game has changed.

“You’re going to need to be flexible as a football program,” Franklin said. “You’re going to need to be flexible as an athletic department and as a university to make sure that you are putting your program and your school in the best position you can to take advantage of these rules.”

Penn State made a serious financial commitment in November by agreeing to a 10-year, $75 million contract for Franklin in November. But when he sees what other schools are doing with NIL deals and transfers, he wants the university to do more.

The Lions are coming off two disappointing seasons, and Franklin is motivated to do better.

“I’m very aware of what the expectations are,” he said. “That’s why we came here. We embrace the extremely high expectations that we have at Penn State.

“But I want to make sure we’re doing all the things necessary to compete with the teams that we’re compared to year round.”