The Penn State Nittany Lions may finally be at the end of the rope with James Franklin, even before the team plays the Ohio State Buckeyes or Indiana Hoosiers.
Penn State urged to pay $56 million James Franklin buyout with OSU, IU looming despite $8 million offseason savings originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The can fire head football coach James Franklin now, for the price of $56 million, or wait until close to the start of the 2026 season and pay $48 million to make him leave Happy Valley instead.
After a 22-21 loss to the Northwestern Wildcats at home, Nittany Lion fans may not mind the extra $8 million if the donor base can scrounge him up. Not losing future recruits as the malaise grows more volatile under a lame duck coach is a good goal. Especially after Drew Allar suffered a season-ending injury against NU.
CBS Sports’ Robby Kalland warned Penn State of the impending near-certain losses coming against the at the “Shoe” and the red-hot in November at Beaver Stadium.
Kalland also spoke of PSU’s boosters coming up with the money to get rid of him ASAP.
“Entering this season, the frustration with Franklin was his inability to win the big game after three straight seasons with 10-plus wins, but consistently falling short against top 10 foes. That continued with a loss to Oregon at home in double overtime this year. On the heels of that heartbreaking loss, things have now spiraled to where Penn State is also not taking care of business against lesser competition,” Kalland wrote.
“That has changed the conversation about his job status tremendously in Happy Valley. The once vocal minority that expressed frustrations with Franklin's inability to win the big one has steadily grown to now include most of the fan base. After shrugging off those frustrations in recent years, Franklin will have a much tougher time quieting the noise after a pair of brutal losses in 2025 -- and a difficult schedule ahead that includes games against No. 1 Ohio State in Columbus and No. 7 Indiana at home.
“...all parties will be hoping that the Nittany Lions can turn around what has become a disastrous 2025 season -- unless Penn State boosters have $56 million ready to go right now.”
The idea of Penn State making the 12-team College Football Playoff field as a three-loss team was once in the ether. No more after consecutive losses to the UCLA Bruins and Wildcats.
Three top-10 wins in over a decade at the helm could’ve been enough to justify Franklin’s firing if this team didn’t get over the hump. Falling to .500 in mid-October is enough to justify pulling that trigger now.
Category: General Sports
