James Franklin blasts NCAA, wants ‘new model for college football’

Seemingly every possible element of the college football calendar collides in December. Between bowl prep, coaching searches, recruiting, and now the transfer portal, college coaches have little time to come up for air. The unsustainable nature of the current NCAA calendar has led to an outcry from coaches across the country. On Friday, Penn State football coach James Franklin reiterated his displeasure with the current format, blasted transfer portal tampering and called for a “new model” in college football. 

James Franklin slams transfer portal tampering, college football calendar

There are only 24 hours in the day, but the current NCAA calendar forces college football personnel to get the most out of every minute in December. For Penn State football, the clock started ticking as soon as the regular season finale against Michigan State ended on November 24.

Since then, it’s been a nonstop flurry of recruiting, assessing the transfer portal, and conducting two coordinator searches. Oh, and Penn State also has a Peach Bowl date with Ole Miss at the end of the month, as well. 

During Peach Bowl media day Friday, James Franklin took the opportunity to express what is, in his eyes, an untenable situation long-term. 

“The schedule is not good. It is not good. It is chaotic,” he said. “You’re recruiting your own roster. There’s mixed messages everywhere. There are agendas in every direction. It’s more challenging than it’s ever been.”

“Schedule-wise, you used to be able to just focus on your current team and recruits, whether that was high school or junior college. Now, obviously, the transfer portal is factoring into it, as well. We’re not a huge transfer portal team, but we do it. That’s factoring into it, as well.” 

Echoing his comments earlier in the month, Franklin called out the challenges created by transfer portal tampering in college football.

“Tampering is rampant,” Franklin expressed. “I think if you talked to any college football coach in the country, that’s an issue. Agents, coaches, calling parents, calling high school coaches of your current team, it is rampant. All the reasons why we’ve had all these rules in place that now are not being enforced. All these rules were put in place for a reason.”

Time for a “new model”

While James Franklin expressed optimism about the current environment around the Penn State football program, he painted a bleak picture for the health of the sport in general. The problem will require everyone in college football to pull in the same direction to be solved. 

But, in Franklin’s opinion, the NCAA has done enough. It’s time for the conference commissions to step in.

“The issue is, I don’t know how to pull it back,” he said. “I think that’s the challenge for the NCAA. I think that’s the challenge for commissioners. I think that’s the challenge for ADs. I think that’s the challenge for college football coaches. 

“I think the only people that can really fix this are the commissioners,” Franklin continued. “They’re the only ones that I think have the power to do it right now. Get all the commissioners in a room for like a week, lock the door with some Chick-fil-A sandwiches, and like literally A through Z, let’s come up with a new model for college football. Because I don’t think this is sustainable for the players, most importantly, but also for the coaches and the staff.”

In the end, James Franklin believes that the consequences of inaction could be dangerous for the sport moving forward. 

“I think you’re going to see more and more coaches leaving college football, he said. “It’s funny, that’s been talked about a lot, but the other concern I have is that it’s attracting people into college football, I think, for the wrong reasons. And I think that’s as big of a concern as the other.”

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