Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1537537
2 8 A U G U S T 2 0 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M / / / / / / / 2 0 2 5 F O O T B A L L P R E V I E W / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / and you've got the playoff. You're always just kind of moving on. You're turning the page. Once Drew decided to come back [for his senior season and third year as starting quarterback], he's thinking, OK, what do I have to do to get better through- out the winter? What should I do to get better throughout the summer? The way Drew approaches it — and the way I think most of the players approach it — is that we're going to be better from those experiences. You think about how many guys in our locker room have expe- rienced it, even the freshmen [in the 2025 recruiting class] who showed up early and were able to experience it. There's value from that — not just what the playoffs are like, but the intensity of playing a game. It's not like the old bowl games where you would go and enjoy yourself and be there for seven days. It's essentially an away game, and you play that game and then, boom, you're back, and you've got to get ready for the next one. Each week it's a big-time opponent, so everybody under- stands that. I just feel like Drew and the players and the staff, they all were just on to the next pass and ready to learn from these experi- ences. BWI: What's next for college football with the recently approved House settle- ment? FRANKLIN: I think there's a lot of confidence from the commissioners and the people putting this whole thing to- gether, but a lot of people [are adopting] a wait-and-see approach to how this is actually going to happen. There's an im- plementation committee from the NCAA that I was involved with a little bit, so I've got a decent idea. But I think there are go- ing to be some growing pains. The hard part is, you're trying to re- cruit, and you're already halfway [through the 2026 cycle], and the rules are just coming out now. You're looking at the budgets and how this is supposed to work, and you're looking at what people are supposedly offering kids, and the math don't math. The majority of people in college foot- ball are doing what every other competi- tive industry is doing. They're trying to push it as far to that line as they possibly can. And then, just like in every other in- dustry, there are a bunch of people who are trying to find loopholes and ways to beat it. BWI: There still isn't a standardization of the sport across conferences, some- thing you've pushed for. FRANKLIN: That's the hard part. But that's also been [the nature of] col- lege football. We haven't been living by the same rules and standards for a long time. In the old days, if you had a really good compliance person who was foot- ball-friendly and would find ways to say "yes," it was like gold. Or maybe you had somebody who was strict and not major- college-football-friendly. You could have two schools that are both trying to follow the rules, and this compliance coordina- tor interprets the rule very strictly and without a whole lot of flexibility. And an- other school that is trying to do it the right way interprets the rule completely differ- ently. That's always been the case. I think everybody is hopeful because they know how we're all living right now and how this is chaos. I don't think any- body feels like it's in anyone's best in- terest right now. It's setting unrealistic expectations long-term for players and Penn State has twice played in the Big Ten Championship Game during Franklin's tenure, defeating Wisconsin in 2016 and falling to Oregon last December. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS