For the second week in a row, Penn State football was ranked at No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Nittany Lions have been ranked above every SEC team besides Texas for the last two weeks, and the Big Ten occupies four of the top five spots in the rankings.

In the current bracket, eight of the 12 tournament teams come from either the SEC or the Big Ten. While it’s been a point of contention, as it is every season, James Franklin addressed the playoffs as a whole after practice on Wednesday.

While Franklin said he’s only worried about Penn State and the Big Ten, he’s been a head coach in both conferences and said that both have an excess of talent.

“The right thing to be talking about is the two best conferences in all of college football are the Big Ten and the SEC,” Franklin said. “We should have the most teams in. I don’t think there’s any question to that.”

Franklin also said it becomes problematic when factoring in automatic qualifiers for the other conferences, but recognized the position that Penn State has with being in the Big Ten. Regardless, Franklin didn’t see a reason for the conferences to take shots at each other.

“We’re fortunate,” Franklin said. “Both conferences are in a really, really good position, and I don’t think there’s any argument there.”

Franklin spent three years as the head coach of Vanderbilt, putting together a 24-15 record. Franklin isn’t the only one who’s spent time in the SEC, though, as cornerback Jalen Kimber transferred to Penn State from Florida and played for Georgia.

Kimber agreed that the two conferences are the best in college football and said he hasn’t noticed any glaring differences in the style of play.

“It’s only small differences,” Kimber said. “I feel like the Big Ten might run the ball a little bit more, but it’s not too far off.”

Even with similar play between the conferences and an expanded 12-team playoff, teams still feel slighted by the decisions from the playoff committee. According to Franklin, that won’t change.

“It was four [teams], and everyone was arguing,” Franklin said. “Now, we get to 12, and guess what? Everybody’s arguing. It’s part of it.”

With the possibility of a longer season with a different postseason schedule, Franklin and the entire program have had to pivot and come up with new procedures for the typical postseason recruiting flurry with both National Signing Day and the transfer portal.

Normally, Franklin is joined by much of the coaching staff during the signing day festivities. This year, the staff came up with a different plan that allows the staff to focus on game-planning and other duties before a potential postseason.

With Franklin’s day filled with mostly actual football, he expressed gratitude for the help of his staff to adapt to the new era of college football.

“We’re fortunate here. We’ve got a group of people that have been with us for a long time,” Franklin said. “It takes a lot of organization and vision and communication to make sure everybody’s on the same page.”