College football has undergone more change over the past few years than it has at any time during its history. Most of that change is due to NIL, the transfer portal, and conference realignment.

Recently, those same changes have made more headlines. Last week, the Pac-12 poached Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Boise State from the Mountain West Conference, and the NCAA is still working on its settlement in an antitrust case regarding NIL rules and regulations in House v. NCAA.

James Franklin spoke about NIL and the transfer portal in February, but on Monday, Franklin was asked about the College Football Playoff in relation to the regular season and conference schedules and the recent dominance of the Big Ten and the SEC this season.

In the old four-team playoff format, teams that made the playoff played at most three additional games after the regular season: its conference championship, the playoff semifinal, and the national championship.

However, the new 12-team playoff format means more games.

The top four seeds belong to the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12 conference champions, who all receive a first-round bye. Despite having a bye, if any of those teams made the national championship, they will play four postseason games due to the expanded playoff.

However, if a team loses its conference championship and still makes the playoff, it would play 17 games if it made the national championship — the same number of games as the NFL regular season.

The relationship between the new playoff format and the regular season has posed questions about whether playing 12 regular-season games is good for college football and player health.

“I don’t think that’s going away. I don’t think that’s changing,” Franklin said about playing 12 regular-season games. “It’s interesting because whenever anybody wants to get anything done in college football, we say we’re doing it for health and wellness to get things passed.”

“It’s hard to say that when we’re talking about a regular season, plus five more games, a possible 17-game season depending on how it plays out for the teams that make the national championship,” Franklin continued. “I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”

Along with the 12-game regular season, Penn State has played a nine-game conference schedule for eight consecutive seasons. Before 2016, Big Ten teams only played eight conference games each season.

“I don’t think that was advantageous either for the Big Ten, but I also would make the argument once you go nine [games], you’re not going to go back to eight,” Franklin said. “You’re hoping other conferences will go to nine. I could even see it possibly going to 10 conference games.”

It’s also worth noting SEC teams still only play eight conference games every year.

With conference realignment, not only could there be more conference games, but those games could be more challenging.

July 1 and August 2 were monumental days for college football. That was when Texas and Oklahoma officially joined the SEC, and Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC officially joined the Big Ten, respectively.

It was essentially the birth of two super conferences as the Pac-12 and Big 12 were left without their top programs, and it didn’t take long for the effects of realignment to be felt.

Sixteen SEC and Big Ten teams made up this week’s AP Top 25, and nine of those 16 teams occupy the top 10. As for the new SEC and Big Ten teams, Texas is the No. 1 team in the country, Oregon is No. 9, USC is No. 11, and Oklahoma is No. 15.

“I would say that everybody probably anticipated that,” Franklin said. “With the growth of the SEC and the growth of the Big Ten, not just their growth in numbers, but the type of programs that were joining both conferences, I think everybody in the country was expecting the Big Ten and SEC would be in a position to be dominant.”

However, there will come a point this season when many top-ranked teams have to play each other because they share a conference. Penn State plays three currently-ranked Big Ten teams later this season: Illinois, USC, and Ohio State.

“You’re also going to get to the point where all of the games are going to be SEC versus SEC and Big Ten versus Big Ten,” Franklin said. “Where does that leave you because you’re playing really good teams week in and week out?”

Franklin’s concerns are valid. Having to travel cross-country and play season-defining games several times a season can take a toll on players’ health and wellness.

It’s also a struggle for the coaches. The biggest gripe Penn State fans have with Franklin is his record in big games, and with more good teams in the Big Ten and a nine- or 10-game conference schedule someday, beating highly-ranked opponents within Penn State’s conference would become more important than ever, especially when only one team is guaranteed a playoff berth.

“We just want to make sure that later in the season you could make an argument for some SEC and Big Ten teams with multiple losses getting in the playoffs over some conferences with single losses just based on the strength of both conferences,” Franklin said.