Penn State's James Franklin Goes in Depth on NIL, Revenue Sharing and the Future

In this interview, the Nittany Lions coach discusses the changing world of college football.

Penn State head football coach James Franklin speaks to reporters during a press conference in Holuba Hall. / Dan Rainville/USA Today Network - PA /

College sports, notably football, changed dramatically July 26, when the NCAA and the so-called "Autonomy Five" conferences released their proposed settlement to three antitrust lawsuits regarding athlete compensation. From here, athletic departments must figure out a new model of revenue sharing, roster limits and NIL.

In a late-spring interview, before the settlement terms were known, Penn State football coach James Franklin discussed NIL, revenue sharing and the complicated window of college football. A version of this interview appeared in Town & Gown's Penn State 2024 Football Annual.

RELATED: How the House vs. NCAA settlement will impact Penn State

QUESTION: You have participated in several NIL events with fans this offseason. What has their impression been of Penn State’s NIL program?

FRANKLIN: The biggest thing is education. I don’t think a lot of people totally understand it, because it is so radically different than maybe the college athletics that they've grown up with or have been involved with for a long period of time. So when you take the Transfer Portal and NIL, two of the biggest changes in the history of college athletics, and essentially do them both at the same time, it creates a lot of challenges. And I think getting people to really understand it and embrace it, is really still where we're at.

We're going to do these things to educate people to get the masses to understand and be involved, because that's the power of Penn State, right? The numbers that we have. So getting everybody to kind of have a better understanding, a feel for it and be comfortable with the concept of it and the philosophy of it is really what we're trying to do. And I think the people that have been open to it and heard us out, I think have been I've been pretty good and pretty supportive.

QUESTION: We’re three years into NIL. What don’t people understand at this point?

FRANKLIN: Well, I think the biggest thing is, it's just so different than what they grew up with, than what they are used to. It's a radical change from the NCAA and the collegiate model that they're used to, and I think in some ways it becomes challenging because there's really no rules right now. People are so used to an NCAA with a governance structure that has very clear rules, black and white, almost to the point where people would get frustrated with the NCAA, like, ‘Come on, this is overly restrictive.’ Well now you've gone to the other end of the spectrum where literally there are no rules right now. You can be as creative as you want to be. So I think that, I don't want to be repetitive, but it's just so different than what people are used to.

So being able to kind of explain how it works, how it impacts the players, how it impacts recruiting, how it impacts our roster and our locker room, explaining all those things [is important]. But then also being able to explain and define what other programs are doing and what we're competing against is really valuable from a best-practices perspective. And I think anybody that really wants to know what we're competing against, it's not very hard to get on Google and research the type of money that's been spent out there on college football so that the expectations match the commitment. There's enough information out there that I think people have a pretty good idea of where things are at now. Are we willing to do those similar types of things and are we able to do it with 10 to 20 significant donors? Or are we able to do with do it with 750,000 alumni? And the reality is, you'd like to do it with a combination of both, right?

QUESTION: Do fans ever ask you, ‘Why should we be playing your players?’ And if so, how do you respond?

FRANKLIN: I think the biggest thing that I try to explain is this. No. 1, this went to the Supreme Court, the NCAA to the Supreme Court, and the NCAA lost 9-0 [in the 2021 NCAA vs. Alston case]. And the Supreme Court basically said, ‘God bless you, the fact that you've been getting away with this for the last 100 years, where else in the United States will that happen?’ When you talk about Penn State football bringing in somewhere between $160 and $180 million per year, and then the players get none of that, where else would that happen in the United States?

My second response that I say to people as much as anything is, what industry in the United States could this happen, where student-athletes are not allowed to earn money or have a job or start a business? I don't think people realize that scholarship student-athletes were not allowed to work. They were not allowed to start a company. They were not allowed to do any of these types of things. … And some of these guys come from really challenging situations. Even for their families being able to come to games — I mean, everybody knows how expensive the hotels are in season and things like that — we’ve got parents sleeping in players’ dorm rooms because they can't afford hotels during the season.

The other story I tell is the Saquon Barkley story, partly because he was there. I remember when we first decided to do the throwback uniforms [in 2017], and the only way I could get that done was by agreeing with the athletic director that, when the game was over, we would auction off those jerseys to pay for them. And I remember Saquon as well some other guys, they wanted their jerseys and couldn't have their jerseys. And I think Saquon was watching his jersey be auctioned off for the athletic department. And I think it may have gone for like $5,000 or $6,000, and Saquon gets none of that. That's his jersey. And I think that's a story that kind of resonates with people.

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin speaks to the media at Big Ten Football Media Days. / Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

QUESTION: Are you ready to become a coach/general manager?

FRANKLIN: Am I ready?

QUESTION: OK, are you one now?

FRANKLIN: Yeah, I’m one now. That's been going on for the last couple of years. Obviously the way the rules are set up, to a degree it's limited somewhat because the collective has to have a lot of those conversations and handle those decisions. But to your point, a lot of that is already happening in terms of how we have to manage it all.

QUESTION: Are you ready for when NIL moves in-house? How are you preparing for that?

FRANKLIN: Yeah, I would like that to happen yesterday. Because I think at the end of the day, it's hard, right? It's challenging, when I'm ultimately responsible for it, but it's outside of my control. Those things I think are frustrating for college coaches in general right now. And that's why I think you see a lot of coaches going to the NFL or leaving head coaching positions to be assistants, because No. 1, that's not what they signed up for. And No. 2, it's outside of your control. You’d better have someone really strong who's running the collective and gets it.

There's a lot of things that go into it. So I think that can be frustrating, because it's outside of your control. In the old days, for the most part — obviously there's exceptions — but in recruiting you'd be considered a great recruiter because you were able to go out and form deep, significant relationships and get guys to see the vision and join your organization or family. And now you could do everything right, and another school is offering $100,000 more than the scholarship and you're not going to get them. And those schools right now are being are being patted on the back, saying what a great job they're doing in recruiting. But the model is completely changed that that's impacting those results.

QUESTION: You've said that college football relationships are becoming more transactional than transformational. Can they be both?

FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think it can be both. And I think we're one of the few programs that are still kind of running themselves in that way. I think we're still a transformation program. But I think again, when some programs lead with NIL, and some recruits lead with NIL, that's going to be the reason why they choose the school, that it's hard for it not to be just a transactional relationship. And what you'd like to do is try to say, 'Listen, you should be choosing a college for the same reason that student athletes have been choosing colleges forever: Where am I going to get the best education? Where am I going to be able to play my sport at the very highest level. And then now there is another component in terms of NIL and that we're not going to necessarily ask you to walk away from money that you're being offered and other places. But we don't want you to choose Penn State because of the money.'

We don't want it to be a bidding war. I want to come to Penn State, and Michigan and Ohio State Notre Dame are offering 'X.' We want to be able to offer 'X' as well. So now the kid can go back to saying, you know, I'm choosing Penn State because of the same reasons that student athletes have always been choosing. And right now under the current model, you're not able to do that.

QUESTION: Where do you want the model to go? What model would ultimately work?

FRANKLIN: I think the challenge right now is, the courts have said any restrictions on players’ ability to earn, any restrictions on players’ ability to move, is illegal. So that that is the challenge, right? That is the challenge, because both of them can create really good opportunities for the student-athletes but also real challenges for them. We all know that every time you transfer, the graduation percentage and likelihood goes down, because you lose credits. So finding a way that allows the student-athletes to still have a great collegiate experience and be able to graduate but there to be some parameters and some guardrails on maybe not stopping the student-athlete from being able to transfer, but maybe there are still some ramifications/penalties for it. So the reality is you want to move, you want to change locations, you want to do these things, in the old days, you'd have to sit a year or something. And I'm not sure exactly what that should be.

But there should be something that at least gives the student-athletes some pause and also gives the university and the athletic programs a little bit of security in terms of not having to recruit your roster every single year in terms of an open free-agent model we have right now. And I think that's where the collective bargaining can come in. And again, to me, it still goes back to these student-athletes graduating, and our model should still be able to help and support that. And right now, I don't think it does. It’s not unusual now to see student-athletes that have transferred three and four times.

QUESTION: Are you comfortable with collective bargaining in college football?

FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think collective bargaining is something that I'm very open-minded to, because it’s important for us to get some type of rules where there's give and take between the players and the universities and the athletic departments.  I think it’s our best chance to get our arms around this again and provide some structure. So yeah, I think for those reasons, it's important.

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