James Franklin's subtle Notre Dame dig has kicked off the silliest beef before CFP semis

The College Football Playoff semifinal between Penn State and Notre Dame looks, on paper at least, to be about as close as can be. Both teams have among the most physical, relentless defenses in the country, with offenses that look to run the ball, be ruthlessly efficient and get out of those defenses' ways as much as possible.

Penn State averages 6.6 yards per play on offense and 4.6 yards per play on defense. Notre Dame? averages 6.5 and 4.6 yards per play, respectively. Heck, they've even got similar injury situations, with Nittany Lions edge rusher Abdul Carter up in the air after getting dinged up in the Fiesta Bowl and Irish defensive lineman Rylie Mills out for the year.

So you'd think that, given how even this matchup appears to be, neither team would want to give its opponent even the slightest of edges ahead of kickoff at the Orange Bowl on Thursday night. But James Franklin has always had a knack for stirring things up at a press conference, and he's not going to back down ahead of the biggest game of his coaching career.

James Franklin tells Notre Dame to join a conference already

Franklin has made full use of the bully pulpit during his team's CFP run, advocating for Nick Saban to become college football commissioner and going off on the state of the transfer portal. But even by Franklin's standards, Wednesday was another level entirely. In his final press conference prior to Penn State's showdown with the Irish, the Nittany Lions head coach took dead aim at one of the sport's sacred cows: Notre Dame and independence.

“No knock at Coach or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference," Franklin said. "Everybody should play a conference championship game or no one should play a conference championship game. Everybody should play the same number of conference games."

Notre Dame's independence comes with a long and storied history, and the school has clung to it fiercely no matter how much college football has changed around them. Sure, it's brought a fat TV deal with NBC and the sort of scheduling flexibility that no other team in the country has. But it also still means a great deal to fans and alumni across the country as something far more than a competitive advantage.

Franklin, however, doesn't care about all that. All he knows is that Notre Dame doesn't have to schedule nine Power 4 games like Penn State does, nor do they have to play in a conference title game. Adding to the spiciness, he said this in the same room as Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, who promptly clapped back.

It's also worth noting that Notre Dame's independence isn't all upside; because the Irish don't belong to a conference, they can't be considered one of the five highest-ranking conference champions, meaning that they're ineligible for an autobid to the College Football Playoff — and under the current format, they can never be seeded higher than fifth regardless of their resume.

Will Franklin's bulletin board material matter too much as soon as the ball is kicked on Thursday night? Probably not. But it certainly adds an extra layer of intrigue on top of this matchup, and you can expect Irish fans to celebrate a little extra should they come out on top.