Penn State coach James Franklin was asked on Tuesday during his weekly press conference at Beaver Stadium — to paraphrase — the potential for the Nittany Lions to drop some tougher non conference games like some fellow Big Ten teams have and how the conference’s expansion changes scheduling strategy.(Michigan and Indiana have both bought out and/or canceled out of conference series in recent years.)
“I would say there’s a team in this conference specifically that’s buying out of a ton of game contracts that are already signed to go in the complete opposite direction,” Franklin said in response to the question.
“No, I don’t think [Penn State’s strategy] has changed. I would say you could even make the argument it’s magnified, and that’s why people are changing their schedules because you look at who people are going to have to play just in our conference, it’s going to be even more challenging than it’s ever been. I don’t think the philosophy or the model has changed. You’ve got to do whatever you possibly can to give yourself a chance, number one, to be undefeated at the end of the season, to your point, with a bigger playoff, there’s probably a little bit more wiggle room in terms of — right now it’s kind of undefeated or at the most one loss, and then on top of that, if you’re not scheduling to be undefeated, you’re scheduling to have the least amount of losses possible to give yourself a chance to be in the playoffs.”
Because the Internet is incapable of reading the entire quote, Franklin’s comments immediately took off in partial form as some veiled shot at Michigan (because who talks trash about Indiana?) missing the entire point Franklin was trying to make, which effectively stated the obvious: What these programs are doing is a smart idea because have you guys looked at the schedule recently?
And Franklin isn’t wrong. While Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC are fun teams to talk about joining the Big Ten on paper, when you start to unpack Penn State’s future schedules following the release of five years worth of Big Ten play, you begin to fully digest the insanity that this expanded conference will bring to the table. Time will tell how those four teams acclimate to all the incoming changes, but it’s hard to imagine a circumstance in which Oregon, Washington and USC in particular suddenly become an easy out for Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan. If anything there are now three more teams legitimately fighting for the top spot in the Big Ten. Any one of those three teams would have been the most interesting scheduled out of conference game for Penn State of the past decade [sorry Pitt and Auburn] and now they’re all regular staples on the menu.
It’s a reminder of what Penn State men’s hockey coach Guy Gadowsky has said just across the street about his own scheduling philosophy. Once again to paraphrase – this conference is so hard to win in to begin with, why would we handicap ourselves before league play ever started?
It’s also a reminder of what Franklin said following the conclusion of Penn State’s series against Auburn. Results aside, it was a fun home-and-home experience for both programs, highlighting two great schools and two of the great atmospheres in college football. With everyone feeling positive following Penn State’s second win, Franklin was asked about doing something like this series again to which Franklin bluntly stated “no.”
Because Franklin and his current and future Big Ten colleagues aren’t wrong. Have you looked at this schedule? Holy sh*t.
Other than next season’s trip to West Virginia, Penn State doesn’t have much in the way of really challenging out-of-conference games on the schedule to begin with, and while we might all be pining away for those interesting non-conference games, James Franklin is thinking about an expanded playoff and what it will take to get there. And getting there won’t be any easier with an unnecessary early season loss.
