James Franklin holds nothing back about Big Ten’s leadership

You could say James Franklin is not a big fan of the Big Ten’s leadership.

Penn State football head coach James Franklin let it be known he’s not pleased with the Big Ten.

Franklin made his first public appearance via teleconference on Wednesday since the Big Ten decided against playing college football this fall. The Big Ten tried to strong arm the ACC, Big 12 and the SEC from playing their seasons and got an insurmountable amount of egg on their face. Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and the university presidents let Franklin and everyone down.

“I am extremely frustrated because we still have very few answers to communicate to our young men and their families about their futures,” said Franklin. Here is his entire opening statement from Wednesday morning’s press conference, via Penn State football’s official account. Penn State had a shot at winning the College Football Playoff and now it’s a wasted year for the Nittany Lions.

James Franklin is not alone in how he feels about what the Big Ten did.

It’s moronic some high-profile college teams in Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania can play this season while others cannot. In Iowa, the Iowa State Cyclones have an outside shot at winning the Big 12, yet the Iowa Hawkes can’t compete in the Big Ten West this year. The Ohio State Buckeyes can’t contend for the College Football Playoff, yet the AAC’s Cincinnati Bearcats can win the Group of 5.

As for Pennsylvania, the more urban campus at the University of Pittsburgh can watch the Pittsburgh Panthers play a 10-game ACC schedule on fall Saturdays, yet the more rural Pennsylvania State University campus in State College will be really quiet this fall. We have to wonder why Warren and the Big Ten couldn’t just wait like the ACC, Big 12 and SEC did.

The absolute and undeniable shame in it all is Penn State pretty much just needed to beat Ohio State in Happy Valley to win the Big Ten East, get to Indianapolis, win the Big Ten and go to the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. Instead, their best player since Saquon Barkley opted out in Micah Parsons and now no Nittany Lions will have a chance to play in 2020.

If you want to know why the Big Ten is perceived as one of the better conferences in the Power 5, or up until this point anyway, it is because they employ outstanding head coaches like Franklin. He built off the tremendous foundational work Bill O’Brien did before him in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal and has the Nittany Lions back on top as a national power in less than a decade.

While Penn State is one of 10 jobs in the country nobody with a brain would ever turn down, it wouldn’t be shocking if the left for a better job where football matters more in the next few years. This was his best chance at winning a national title and that was ripped away from. I’m not saying he should go back to Vanderbilt, but Derek Mason will be gone and Franklin is a football god there.

What this boils down to is a violation of trust between Warren and the university presidents vs. the athletic directors, coaches, coaching staff, players and fans. What side are you on? Franklin’s job is to win football games, as well as make sure these young men are taken care of when they are away from mom and dad. The whole thing is embarrassing and I feel sorry for Big Ten fans.

Franklin has every reason to be critical of the awful job Big Ten leadership displayed this summer.

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