James Franklin and Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman took to the stand Wednesday for the final press conference before the Orange Bowl on Thursday evening.

The two discussed what it has been like playing and navigating the new 12-team College Football Playoff and what the future holds for the sport.

Franklin took an imposing stance on the topics while Freeman was more passive. The coaches spoke about playing a long schedule, leadership in college football, conference realignment and schedules, and how it impacts their players.

Playing An NFL-Esque Schedule

In September, Franklin voiced his concerns about potentially playing a 17-game schedule, the equivalent of the NFL regular season. A national championship appearance now requires five additional games for teams like Penn State this season, who played in and lost its conference champions but still made the playoffs.

“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 said on September 16. “I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”

After playing 12 regular season games, losing in the Big Ten Championship, and playing in a third-straight College Football Playoff game for a program record 16 games this season, Franklin stood by the statement he made nearly four months ago.

“I think it’s something that we’re going to have to look at in terms of what’s best for college football. What’s best for the student-athlete experience? What’s best in a university setting? Because I don’t know if this is really what it was designed to be,” Franklin said Wednesday.

“I think when every decision that we make is based on finances, then we’re not making great decisions that are in the student-athletes and the game of football’s best interest,” he added.

Freeman had no major gripes with the format and accepted the challenge of navigating the extensive schedule.

“You have a plan, you have a team, you have a sports performance team that you listen to and talk to on some different scenarios,” Freeman said. “You have to be adaptable. You have to be willing to adapt based on individual things that can happen. That’s what we’ve been able to do.”

Needing More Leadership

Franklin said last week that he believes college football needs a commissioner and someone like former Alabama head coach Nick Saban would be “the obvious choice.” Although the sentiment wasn’t well received by Saban, Franklin doubled down on his stance.

“I think that we need somebody that is looking at it from a big-picture perspective,” Franklin said. “I think having somebody in that position would be valuable for our sport and for our student-athletes.”

Franklin also said he thinks having someone not tied to a conference or school would be best for the position.

“I think there’s just a ton of things that need to be discussed and looked at and I think we need to do it with people that do not feel the pressure from their university or their conference.

Creating A Level Playing Field

Another thing Franklin mentioned in September was the conference schedule. He said it wasn’t “advantageous” for the Big Ten to switch from eight conference games to nine in 2016 when conferences like the SEC stuck with eight. Adding conference realignment into the mix can create issues at the end of the regular season.

“I was in the SEC when the whole conversation was whether to got to eight or nine conference games,” Franklin said. “All the coaches voted against going to nine games. The commissioner agreed and kept it at eight. I think that was one of the better decisions the SEC made.”

“The Big Ten went to nine games. I was not a math major at East Stroudsburg, but the numbers are going to make things more challenging if you’re playing one more conference game,” Franklin continued.

On Wednesday, Franklin said he’d like to see every school in a conference, including Notre Dame, to level the playing field.

“I think it should be consistent across college football,” Franklin said. “This is no knock at coach [Freeman] or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game or no one should play a conference championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games.”

However, Freeman said he views Notre Dame remaining independent as beneficial to his program.

“We view being independent as a positive thing,” Freeman said. “We sell it to our recruits and our players as a positive thing. We can’t play in a championship game and we can’t have a first-round bye but we continue to use not playing week 13 as our bye and that’s the way we deal with it.”

Impacting The Players

Franklin believes the interests of the student-athletes should be at the forefront of the decisions made in college football. However, that’s not always the case.

With the potential 17-game schedule, Franklin said Dr. Andrew Nelson has played a significant role in managing the health of his roster. Nelson is the director of performance science for the Nittany Lions and played for Franklin from 2014 to 2017.

“He’s done a phenomenal job and he does a really good job of tying it all together: the coaching, our trainers, and doctors as well as the strength coaches and making sure that the complete plan makes sense and what we’re doing in the weight room complements what we’re doing on the field,” Franklin said.

Keeping players fresh also means utilizing depth and rotating players in and out throughout the game.

“I think another thing that I would say is how important depth and development in your program is,” Franklin said. “You have to be willing to play guys and that’s been something that we’ve done all the way back since my time at Vanderbilt, trying to create depth by playing guys.”

Another concern is changing the scholarship total to 105, effectively eliminating walk-ons. Franklin has talked extensively about the rule change, especially about linebacker Dom DeLuca. The former Pennsylvania Player of the Year came to Penn State as a walk-on, gray-shirted, earned a scholarship, and is now a starter and team captain.

“What a shame that there may not be more stories like this in college football with the 105 rule. Dom DeLuca may not happen at Penn State,” Franklin said after DeLuca’s two-interception game against SMU.

Franklin was asked specifically about Tyler Elsdon on Wednesday. The redshirt senior started 13 games in 2022 but has played primarily as a reserve since. However, he has remained loyal to the Nittany Lions, earned his degree, and never attempted to transfer.

But will players like Elsdon become extinct in the future?

“I sure hope not,” Franklin said. “Because their [DeLuca and Elsdon] stories are what make college football so special.”

“I cannot express the impact that Tyler Elsdon has had on Penn State football and our locker room,” Franklin said. “He is beloved in our locker room because he’s earned everybody’s respect and he’s done it the right way.”