Franklin hopes Big Ten-SEC group can fix college football
Nick Saban’s decision to leave college football a month ago after guiding Alabama to six national championships was stunning.
And last week, Chip Kelly’s resignation as UCLA head coach to become offensive coordinator at Ohio State and take a hefty pay cut was shocking.
Not necessarily to Penn State coach James Franklin, who has been complaining for most of the last year that college football has no guardrails when it comes to Name, Image and Likeness and the transfer portal.
“My biggest concern is you’re having people leave college football who would have never left college football,” Franklin said Tuesday, “because it’s gotten further and further away from what they signed up for.”
Kelly, once the Philadelphia Eagles head coach, has been one of the louder voices complaining about today’s college football model. It was no secret that he was looking to leave UCLA and return to the NFL, even as a coordinator.
He wound up replacing former Penn State coach
Bill O’Brien, who spent a few weeks on the Ohio State staff before becoming Boston College head coach. Kelly rejoined Buckeyes coach Ryan Day, who he formerly coached at New Hampshire.
Earlier this month, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey announced they were forming a joint advisory group of presidents, chancellors and athletic directors from their conferences to discuss those issues.
It was welcome news to Franklin and many coaches around the country.
“You can make the argument that the commissioners are the only people who could really get this thing fixed right now,” Franklin said. “I love the fact that the Big Ten and the SEC have stepped up to have a leadership role, a significant leadership role, in this and are using their voices.
“As we all know, we have some tremendous challenges right now in college athletics as a whole, but specifically college football. To see the Big Ten and the SEC step up, I think, really right now is the only solution. I feel good about it.”
They are the two wealthiest conferences in the country. With UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington joining the Big Ten and Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC, the two conferences will have 34 schools in 27 states in the fall.
Petitti and Sankey said they have no plans to break away from the NCAA. They want to have a larger say in potential changes that are made to improve big-time athletics.