It’s the mantra of nearly every good high school and college coach: Academics come first.

James Franklin has often highlighted the importance of academics within his program, and academic success is one of his main issues with college football’s current situation after the advent of the transfer portal.

At Friday morning’s joint head coach press conference ahead of the Peach Bowl, both Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and Franklin sounded off on the current college football landscape. While both coaches said fixing the system was too large of a discussion to have at the time, neither was particularly happy.

“Right now, there’s no parameters. There’s no guardrails,” Franklin said. “I don’t really feel like it’s in anybody’s best interests.”

“In talking with a lot of coaches over the last two weeks, there’s been a lot of struggles, and it’s a poor system,” Kiffin said. “You don’t have free agency during the season. That doesn’t happen with no parameters around it. And that’s what we’re dealing with.”

On the Monday after championship weekend, college football coaches nationwide go into recruiting overdrive — the transfer portal opens, and national signing day looms large.

It’s a tough situation for coaches. Franklin noted at Penn State’s local bowl media day that he hadn’t been sleeping much amid home visits and finalizing next year’s roster. UCLA head coach Chip Kelly went viral just weeks ago for heavily criticizing the NCAA and the system of college football.

College coaches have become increasingly critical of the transfer portal since the one-year penalty for football players was removed in 2021, but Franklin believes it’s not the coaches who are at the forefront of change.

“Right now, the way I see it, the commissioners of the conferences are the best people to solve these problems,” Franklin said. “Get them all into a room together. You could have representation from the NCAA as well, the NFL, and sit down and really start from scratch, a whole new calendar, a whole new model.”

Both coaches are supportive of NIL and players having the ability to earn money while in college. However, it does come with its issues.

Kiffin specifically noted the challenges of paying for a five-star recruit only for that same player to transfer after things don’t go exactly as planned. Franklin, however, has been good at retaining his talent, and coaches like Kiffin have taken notice.

“James has done the best job of keeping players probably of anybody in the country,” Kiffin said. “But a lot of these others, as you look at the classes the last two years, these five-star guys aren’t paying off.”

Franklin still uses a high school-heavy recruiting approach, but now, he’s forced to have more conversations about the state of his program four or five years in advance while talking to a prospect who’s yet to suit up in a college uniform.

“The high school model really only works anymore if the players and their parents will stay and allow them to be developed,” Franklin said. “If you put all your time into high school prospects, but they won’t have the patience and take the time to allow you to develop them, then all you’re really doing is developing them for somebody else’s program.”

While the portal can be detrimental to a football program, both Kiffin and Franklin agree it’s also harmful to a player’s academic aspirations.

Transferring once may not set a student back too far on their path to a degree, but Kiffin believes the two-time transfers are put in a severe hole.

Franklin has always been big on academics at Penn State. This season, Penn State posted a record-breaking 93% graduation success rate. It’s something both Franklin and the university are proud of, but the portal makes attaining such a high rate a lot more difficult.

“I think me and Lane came up in this profession where the starting point was based on education,” Franklin said. “Right now there’s not one rule or decision being made based on education. I think there’s a way to really balance both and be able to get both things done.”