With roughly 80 days between now and the previously announced July 1 deadline to name a new athletic director, Penn State finds itself tackling a decision that will shape the course of the next decade on the field of play and off of it.
In many ways it’s also a decision that could determine how long James Franklin ultimately stays at Penn State. Franklin’s buyout will drop to just $2 million following the 2023 season — it dropped from $12 million to $8 million on April 1, and will be $6 million in 2023 — while the university will be on the hook for effectively all of his remaining years if they were to fire him without cause. The ball is in Franklin’s court for the vast majority of his new 10-year deal after 2023. One might infer that the happier he is, the longer he stays.
So the decision of who follows in the footsteps of Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour is not one to be taken lightly if incoming President Neeli Bendapudi and the current Board of Trustees see Franklin as a longterm piece of the athletics’ puzzle. An unhappy Franklin might be inclined to finally take one of his many annual offers once his buyout is lower. Then again, if the Nittany Lions continue their struggles of the past few seasons, Penn State might happily open that door for him and save millions in the process.
In either case, what Franklin wants out of his new boss is of no small consequence as the newly hired TurnkeyZRG search firm moves through the process.
“I would say bold and aggressive,” Franklin said after practice on Wednesday of what he wants out of the next AD. “That is something that I think is really important [and] I think a really good understanding nationally – and again, I can only speak for football – but a really good understanding about what we’re truly competing against week in and week out.”
Franklin has talked for years now about the importance of alignment between him and the Penn State administrative levels. While usually stated between the lines, Franklin often sounds frustrated with the inflexibility or tentative, process-oriented approach Penn State has taken to both facility upgrades and competitive hiring practices.
Of course just because Franklin wants it doesn’t mean he should get it, but the ability to be quicker as a department and more dexterous in a fast-paced college football landscape could go a long way. According to a source, longtime staff Michael Hazel’s departure for Virginia Tech is an example of “the way it is” with red tape and institutional inflexibility.
Franklin continued…
“And then the ability to get some things done from a policy and procedure standpoint on campus, that don’t affect or impact the university, but could have a significant impact on athletics and specifically football, to streamline some things. Maybe be a little bit less bureaucratic with some things. That kind of goes back to the alignment thing that I’ve said before.”
In a perfect world Franklin would be happy with someone in the mold of Michael Alford, who was the president and CEO of Seminole Boosters since 2020 before being hired into the athletic director role at Florida State in December. A football guy with a football background, the alignment would almost certainly be there, presuming Bendapudi was onboard as well.
Of course hiring someone so closely cut from the football cloth could be a change of pace for an athletic department that has long enjoyed raising all ships at the same time. A football-first approach would be quite the paradigm shift for an athletic department that spent no small part of the last few years trying to secure funding sources for a massive natatorium upgrade and renovation.
Sean Frazier, an early name reported in the search, might be the best of both worlds. Currently in the same role at Northern Illinois, Frazier is also a protege of Big Ten staple and former Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez. It would be a bit of both football and everyone else, but he is just one name in a long and expansive search.
It is perhaps obvious to state, but the next few months will do much to shape the next few years.
