The SEC announced two weeks ago that it will implement a nine-game conference football schedule beginning in 2026. In addition, SEC teams will also be required to annually schedule at least one non-conference game against an opponent from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Notre Dame.
The nine-game conference slate is what Penn State head coach James Franklin had been seeking — not just for the SEC, but all of Power 4 — and he came out strong about it at the Big Ten media days in July in Las Vegas. His sentiments made national headlines.
The Big Ten already has a nine-game conference schedule, but the league does not have mandates about the other three non-conference regular-season opponents.
Since the SEC announcement, Franklin had not been asked about his thoughts on the new scheduling rules — at least by the day-to-day PSU beat reporters. So, on Monday, I asked for his thoughts at his weekly presser. His reply:
CONSISTENCY: “I can give you a response that I’ve given in the past that’s consistent. I think I’ve said this for probably the last 10 years — everybody should play the same number of games. Everybody should have the same rules in terms of types of opponents that we play. Everybody should have conference championship games. Should be consistency.”
CFP IMPLICATIONS: “Again, if you want to try to put together the best 12 teams for a playoff, it’s hard to do that when you have a committee getting together and trying to compare eight conference games to nine conference games to conference championship games. And one team loses a conference championship game and another team doesn’t even have to play in one.
“It’s just problematic. When I say this, sometimes people think I’m attacking certain conferences or schools. I’m not. I’m just…I just think there should be consistency. If you’re in Power 4 football, everybody should be playing a similar schedule so that the committee can get together at the end of the season and compare apples to apples as much as we possibly can.”
ALIGNMENT: “The reality is we don’t have a commissioner of college football, so that’s where the commissioners of the Power 4 conferences, specifically the Big Ten and the SEC, need to get together and come up with what’s in the best interest of college football and the best interest of student-athletes and the fans. And then you won’t have to worry about all these different things when it comes to scheduling, because everybody is going to kind of have the same parameters. I think that is the right thing to do for all the parties that we just talked about.”
What Franklin says matters, on a couple of levels. He is:
1.) The head coach of the No. 2-ranked team in college football.
2.) The third vice president of the American Football Coaches Association. The AFCA membership includes over 11,000 members and represents coaches and several stakeholders in football, at the college, high school, junior college, international, semi-pro or pro levels.
3.) The second-longest tenured head coach in the Big Ten Conference, behind Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, for consecutive seasons (12) at the same school and No. 8 among all 136 FBS programs for longest tenure at the same school.
THE POWER 4 LANDSCAPE IN 2026
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey recently said his conference will release its 2026 conference schedule — of nine league opponents per school — in December.
“Adding a ninth SEC game underscores our universities’ commitment to delivering the most competitive football schedule in the nation,” Sankey said. “This format protects rivalries, increases competitive balance, and paired with our requirement to play an additional Power opponent, ensures SEC teams are well prepared to compete and succeed in the College Football Playoff.”
Sankey did not say when the mandatory 10th game against a Power 4/Notre Dame opponent will take effect, only that it will. Almost always, Penn State has met that measure. Only four seasons since joining the Big Ten in 1993 — discounting COVID 2020, when the Big Ten played only conference games — has Penn State not played a Power 5/4 non-conference opponent (2005, 2014, 2015, 2025).
Franklin wants mandated consistency across the top conferences. When comparing conferences, this is important: Right now, the Big Ten does not have any conference-wide rules about scheduling out-of-conference games.
This is what the Power 4 and Notre Dame look like when it comes to key scheduling parameters, such as conference opponents, a title game and non-conference opponents, beginning in 2026. For good measure, I also included their conference participation in the 2024 College Football Playoff:
PENN STATE & NON-CONFERENCE GAMES
Penn State’s 2025 non-conference slate of games — Nevada (a 46-11 win), Florida International (this Saturday) and Villanova (Sept. 13) — does not include a Power 4 conference team. That’s an anomaly when it comes to the Nittany Lions’ history of non-conference opponents.
Penn State originally did have a Power 4 opponent scheduled for Saturday — Virginia Tech, coached ironically enough by former PSU defensive coordinator Brent Pry, hired by Tech in 2022. Penn State had a home-and-home series with Virginia Tech scheduled for 2020/2025, but then COVID knocked out the first game and the series went bust. FIU was a late pickup.
Prior to 2025 and not counting the 2020 COVID season, Franklin’s Penn State team had faced eight consecutive Power 4 foes, compiling an impressive 7-1 record. They were: home-and-homes with West Virginia (2023-24), Auburn (2021-22) and Pitt (2016-2019). Their sole loss came at Pitt in 2016, by 42-39. The only ranked foe among the 33 non-conference opponents Franklin has faced at PSU was No. 22 Auburn, which Penn State beat 28-20 in Beaver Stadium in 2021.
In Franklin’s first two years at Penn State, the Nittany Lions played seven non-conference games, going 6-1. None were in the Power 5 at the time. Their only loss was 27-10 to Temple in Philadelphia in 2015.
Here’s a breakdown of Penn State in non-conference games under Franklin, from 2014 through PSU’s win last Saturday vs. Nevada in Beaver Stadium:
Years: 2014-2025 (first game of ’25 only)
Overall Record: 31-2 (.939)
27 home games (27-0), 6 away games (4-2)
Away: UCF (Dublin), Temple, Pitt (2), Auburn, West Virginia
Power 4/5 opponents: 7-1
Ranked opponents: 1 (No. 22, Auburn, W, 2021)
PSU NON-CONFERENCE GAMES: 1993-2013
Prior to the 1993 season, the Nittany Lions were an independent in college football and did not belong to a conference. They made their own schedule, but were not bound by any guidelines.
In 1993, Penn State joined the Big Ten and played a conference schedule. When Penn State joined, teams annually played eight Big Ten opponents. The schedule expanded to nine conference foes in 2016. The Big Ten has played a conference championship game annually since 2011.
In the 21 seasons from 1993-2013, there was only one season (2005, when PSU went 11-1 and was ranked No. 3) when Penn State did not play a Power 5 opponent. Its non-conference foes that year were USF, Cincinnati and Central Michigan.
Here’s a breakdown of Penn State in non-conference games from 1993 through 2013; Joe Paterno was the head coach from 1993-mid 2011; interim coach Tom Bradley did not take over from Paterno in 2011 until after the non-conference games were played — including a 27-11 loss to No. 3 Alabama in Beaver Stadium. Bill O’Brien was the Penn State head coach in the challenging sanction seasons of 2012-13.
Years: 1993-2013
Overall Record: 62-14 (.816)
Head coach: Paterno (57-11, .838), O’Brien (5-3, .625)
57 home games (52-5), 19 away games (10-9 overall; 8-0 1990s)
Power 4/5 opponents: 31; 20-11
Ranked opponents: 12; 6-6
Selected foes: USC (3-1), Pitt (3-1), Arizona (1-0), Miami, Fla. (1-1), Nebraska (1-1), Notre Dame (1-1), Alabama (0-2)
