There's been no shortage of controversy surrounding the modern era of college football, as the sport has experienced heavy change thanks to realignment, NIL money, and the transfer portal.
Opinions on all of those subjects differ widely among fans and analysts alike, and Penn State head coach James Franklin didn't pull any punches when he gave his thoughts on those matters.
Here's what Franklin had to say at a recent press conference.
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James Franklin's comments on the state of college football
It's become more than apparent that college football is never returning to the way Franklin — and many fans — once knew and loved.
Those days are gone and well in the past. If anything, the sport's landscape should only be expected to evolve more as time goes on.
“The reality is that the college football we’ve all known, the college athletics we’ve all known, that’s not coming back," Franklin said in his press conference on Tuesday. "You’re going to have to embrace the current model that we’re in. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t make it better.”
Franklin also spoke about the nature of the transfer portal and players who transfer multiple times. The topic of the portal itself is polarizing enough, but the discussions around it get even rockier when it comes to "multi-transfers."
The number of players who fit that criteria, such as quarterbacks Casey Thompson, Tate Martell, Kedon Slovis, and countless others, has only grown. That trend isn't expected to change any time soon under the current circumstances, either. Franklin explained why that's a bad thing — not just for fans, but for the student-athletes themselves.
“You can't tell me that it's good for the student-athletes to transfer three, four times," Franklin said. "Every time you transfer the likelihood of graduating goes down. I don’t think that’s in anybody’s best interest.”
His own roster retention is something Franklin has placed a lot of value on, and though he does utilize the portal, he is not nearly as active as the Lane Kiffins of the sport. Kiffin has utilized the portal so much that he's been nicknamed the "Portal King."
Franklin said Penn State has not been a "big" transfer program when it comes to gaining or losing players, and he uses the portal to seek out "complementary pieces" for his team as needed. He also added an interesting note about the players Penn State likes to target in the portal:
"If we go to the transfer portal, more times than not I would love it to be a guy that we recruited initially because it's a short period of time for the parents, for the players, and for our staff to get to know each other," Franklin said.
The Nittany Lions added just six players through the transfer portal in 2023 between Mississippi State cornerback Audavion Collins, Penn State product Alonzo Ford, Minnesota running back Trey Potts, Duke interior offense lineman Addison Penn, FSU wide receiver Malik McClain, and Kent State wideout Dante Cephas.
PSU lost eight players over the same time frame, including running back Devyn Ford and cornerback Storm Duck.
While there are clearly some changes to be made, it's easy to see Franklin strongly disagrees with the way things have gone.
" [College football is] not headed in a good direction, really for anybody."
Franklin's full comments from his press conference can be found below.
"We've been on a slippery slope for a while. The college football that we've all known, that's not coming back."
— Allie Berube (@allieberube) February 13, 2024
Penn State's James Franklin on the state of college sports.
Lengthy but well worth hearing his full comments @NittanyInsiders | #NittanyNation | @coachjfranklin pic.twitter.com/ZerZwTmlNF
Regardless of how Franklin feels about the current state of college football, there's no changing the reality, so, like Franklin, fans need to embrace it.
