How dumb is Penn State? James Franklin is worth $85 million after the past two years?



… worse than mediocrity


Hard to believe that less than two months ago the Penn State Nittany Lions were the fourth-ranked team in the country. I said at the time that they were overrated.


Coach James Franklin demonstrated that as his team will now never be even ranked in the Top 25 at the end of the season. 


Still, Penn State, in its infinitesimal wisdom, completed a 10-year, $85 million dollar deal with Franklin last week. 


This was because they had hoped that either USC or LSU would hire Franklin away and save them from their misery. Unfortunately, they were wrong, and after the most embarrassing loss in the modern era — a nine-overtime loss to a 24-point underdog Illinois, the PSU management — realizing that the president is leaving next year — figured that they had to make this deal instead of making major repairs to Beaver Stadium. 


Even the media is ignoring the ridiculousness


When I read the headline of an Op-Ed in the Post-Gazette that said this, “Can’t blame Penn State for capitulating to James Franklin,” I thought that even the media is buying into this garbage.


The truth is that Franklin his his peak in 2016 when his team compiled an 11-2 regular-season record and won the Big Ten, it has been downhill ever since — even though he had two 11-win seasons. 


The truth is that Franklin is the penultimate Mike Tomlin — he can win regular-season games, but not championships. Tomlin at least won one Super Bowl, but it has been downhill after that despite winning 65 percent of his games. 


Now, after finishing the season with a 7-5 record after a 4-5 record last season, Penn State rewards a guy who is just one game above .500 with a lucrative contract. 


How lucrative?


Something almost as rare as last week’s near-total lunar eclipse happened Tuesday at Penn State: James Franklin won a big game.


The matchup pitted Franklin and his recently hired, highfalutin agent, Jimmy Sexton, against the powers that be at Penn State. They kicked off nine weeks ago, and unlike the horrific nine-overtime loss to Illinois, this one was never close.

Franklin-Sexton ran up the score on a 10-year, $85 million deal (really a six-year extension on the contract Franklin signed two years ago). I’m guessing the lure of a potentially transformative 2022 recruiting class — headlined by perhaps the best quarterback prospect in the country — played a pivotal role in the powers that be acquiescing to the Franklin-Sexton demands.

And there were many.

Basically, Franklin, who already was the highest-paid coach in the Big Ten, will receive a significant raise, the promise of major program upgrades and the freedom to leave practically without penalty beginning in 2024.

Oh, and if he is fired without cause, the university would owe him the world.

Joe Starkey, “Can’t blame Penn State for capitulating to James 

Franklin,” Post-Gazette, November 24, 2021


 In essence, Penn State fans, you are stuck despite having another great recruiting class — that will ultimately underachieve and lose to Ohio State — and now Michigan since it is the Big Ten power. 


Sad, sad situation for all of us who are Nittany Lion fans — and I am a guy who has stuck up for Franklin over the years. 


No longer.


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