One of the few topics Penn State coach James Franklin gets on a soapbox for is a standardization of competition in the sport of college football.
“Everybody has to play the same number of conference games,” Franklin said. “This ain’t that hard. Everybody should be playing eight, or everybody should be playing nine.”
The SEC announced Thursday that it will be playing a ninth conference game starting in 2026, joining the Big Ten and Big XII as the third Power 4 conference to have nine conference games.
“Adding a ninth SEC game underscores our universities’ commitment to delivering the most competitive football schedule in the nation,” commissioner Greg Sankey said in a news release. “This format protects rivalries, increases competitive balance, and paired with our requirement to play an additional Power opponent, ensures SEC teams are well prepared to compete and succeed in the College Football Playoff.”
One of the unflattering themes of 2025 Big Ten Media Days was Big Ten coaches describing their scheduling strategies in the same vein as their SEC brethren.
“The two best conferences in college football, any football guy that’s objective will tell you, are the Big Ten and the SEC. Twelve of the 16 SEC teams play three G5 or an FCS team. Twelve of those teams play 36 games, 29 G5 games and seven FCS games, and one less conference game [than Big Ten teams],” Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti responded to his scheduling tactics.
“So, we figured we would just adopt SEC scheduling philosophy. Some people don’t like it. I’m more focused in on those nine conference games.”
One of the things Franklin emphasized in his desire to see a complete standardization of scheduling was an easier ability for teams to schedule one another.
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“If we can control some of the barriers [with scheduling], that’s going to help some of the people that have a very challenging job already,” Franklin said. “That would be the one thing I’d like to see change.”
The SEC made a strategic chess move in its announcement, making it a requirement that not only do SEC schools play their nine conference games but they also must schedule a 10th game against Notre Dame or Big Ten, Big XII, ACC teams.
Ever since the Big Ten started playing nine conference games in 2016, Penn State has played 10 or more regular season games against Power 4 teams every season except for 2020, where it was a Big Ten only season and this year.
Although Penn State was originally slated to play Virginia Tech Sept. 6, Penn State cancelled the game in 2021.
Penn State and Virginia Tech were originally to play in 2020, but COVID led to conference only scheduling nationally cancelling the game.
“(AD Whit) Babcock said he does not think the Hokies will go to Penn State in 2025 because the Nittany Lions did not come here this year,” Hokies beat writer Andy Bitter tweeted in 2021 “Said there’ll be a neutral site game that “you all will really like” coming up but did not offer specifics.”
Penn State won’t play an out of conference Power 4 team this year and next year.
Syracuse returns to the schedule in 2027 and 2028 returning Penn State back to playing 10 Power 4 games.
Penn State AD Pat Kraft said earlier this week at his press conference that he hasn’t yet had an opportunity to schedule any of the games into the future.
Kraft did joke his only contribution to Penn State’s future schedules is the Temple series as he organized those.
The news has to make Franklin and Nittany Nation smile a bit more.
This is no disrespect to the athletes at Nevada, Florida International, and Villanova but the out of conference value this season for fans is not there.
When you look at other Big Ten schools like Ohio State (Texas, Alabama, Georgia), Michigan (Oklahoma, Texas, Notre Dame), and Nebraska (Oklahoma) having marquee out of conference games, with Penn State only having Syracuse is cheating the fan out of a great experience.
The SEC made their move, now it’s up to Franklin to influence Kraft, to not only catch up to what the SEC did but also with their Big Ten peers.
