The first College Football Playoff Rankings of 2024 prove Penn State can’t fire James Franklin

“Fire Franklin” chants rained down on Penn State’s 11th-year head coach after the 10th loss of his tenure to Ohio State on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. James Franklin is now 1-10 against the Buckeyes and has just one career win against top-5 ranked teams, and a large portion of the fanbase around Happy Valley, isn’t very happy. 

However, the first College Football Playoff Rankings of the 12-team era were released on Tuesday night, just three days later, and they proved that despite the calls for change growing louder year after year, Penn State should not and can not fire James Franklin. 

Franklin has never made the four-team CFP during his tenure, but after checking in at No. 6 in the first week of the CFP rankings in 2024 with a 7-1 record, his team is firmly in the 12-team picture. All Franklin has to do is win out the rest of his team's four games, beating Washington, Purdue, Minnesota, and Maryland, and the Nittany Lions will have a shot to play for the national championship. 

The expanded playoff is what the program that has been knocking on the door more than any other in college football that has never broken through, has been desperately waiting for. To move on now, with the program in a stable spot as a consistent playoff contender, would be a massive mistake. 

There’s no reason to believe that Franklin will suddenly turn things around against the Buckeyes next year or at any point in the near future, but the CFP rankings committee just sent him a boldface letter to State College, PA telling him he doesn’t need to. Penn State entered the weekend at No. 3 in the AP Poll and is ranked No. 6 after a loss, still ahead of 9-0 Indiana and 8-0 BYU. 

The playoff provides an alternative path to success for Franklin, one that may not require beating the Buckeyes. 11-1 would nearly guarantee a home playoff game in the first round and likely a shot at either the ACC or Big 12 champion in the quarterfinals. The decision-makers for this program, specifically athletic director Pat Kraft, need to see how Franklin can navigate those scenarios for at least two seasons before he moves on. 

If this season craters and Franklin misses the playoff even after the sport lowered the requirement, then he has to go, but if the Nittany Lions are a perennial playoff team, which they would have been over the past decade if the 12-team format existed, that’s too good to give up on. 

It’s not just that the playoff provides a way to sidestep the Buckeyes, the Big Ten no longer has divisions, so it will be easier for the Nittany Lions to make the conference title game. Still, those aren’t the only positive changes because revenue sharing is on the way. 

More than game management or play-calling on Saturdays in the fall, the biggest reason for the gap between Ohio State and Penn State is the gap in their operating budgets. Once introduced, revenue sharing with level the playing field for every team in the conference. If Franklin still can’t get over the hump while on mostly equal footing with his primary competition, then it will be time to move on, but not now. 

Penn State won’t fire James Franklin this season, and more than likely will make the 12-team CFP. These changes are just what Penn State has been waiting for, so the program just needs to wait a bit longer to see if they pay off.