Penn State’s move to fire James Franklin just six games into the 2025 season, with a contract that runs through 2031 and carries a $50 million buyout, initially seemed hasty, but as more details emerged about the wording of Franklin’s contract, it’s beginning to make more financial sense for the University.
Franklin’s contract does career about a $50 million buyout, one of the largest in college football history. However, it also has an offset and a “duty to mitigate.” That means whatever Franklin gets paid at his next head coaching gig will subtract from the buyout money, and the 53-year-old is required to seek employment.
For all his flaws and his 4-21 record against top 10 opponents, Franklin is still one of the best coaches in the country, and certainly the best who is currently unemployed (and not out of the game like Urban Meyer or Bob Stoops). He’s a Big Ten Champion, led the Nittany Lions within one drive of the national championship game last year, and certainly left the program in a better place than he found it.
He will find a job, and probably a very good one with a chance to compete for the College Football Playoff or even the national title.
Now, it’s possible that Franklin could cut a deal for a cheap contract with the next program he joins for an under market contract for the duration of his buyout, so he continues to see much of his payment from Penn State and his new team can funnel the additional money into the roster. Still, the next program will have to pay him something, and any little bit will help balance Penn State’s books.
Here are five programs that are searching for a head coach, or will be soon, where Franklin would be a good fit.
This is a bit of an off-the-wall suggestion. It would be a major downgrade to go from Penn State to Stanford, and if Franklin was complaining about the travel in the Big Ten, he’d hate being a West Coast ACC team. However, it could still be a match.
Franklin has a history of success at a school with rigorous academic standards, with two nine-win seasons at Vanderbilt, and Stanford has made serious commitments to improving its football program. With Andrew Luck as the program’s general manager and a recent influx of cash from a former Stanford player, the Cardinal could view Franklin as the missing piece.
Outwardly, North Carolina is releasing statements saying that the program is still behind Bill Belichick, but there’s almost no way that he survives this season. The Tar Heels are the worst Power 4 team in the country, even worse than Stanford, and it’s an embarrassment for the entire university.
North Carolina is going to move on from Belichick eventually, and if the boosters who hired him are still committed to making a big splash with an established coach, there won’t be a better option on the market than Franklin.
UCLA has completely turned its season around after an 0-4 start, including its upset win over Penn State, but the Bruins will still be looking for a full-time answer this offseason. The program has been financially strapped and needs someone who can modernize its NIL operations. Considering what Franklin was able to do in Happy Valley, dragging Penn State out of the stone age after a scandal that could have destroyed the program, he should be the name at the top of their big board.
From Franklin’s perspective, he already recruited California fairly well as the head coach of Penn State, so he could thrive in SoCal and compete with Lincoln Riley and USC on the recruiting trail. Still, as with Stanford and UNC, this is another situation where those programs should want Franklin more than he wants them.
Here’s a program that Franklin should be excited to take over with a chance to finally breakthrough with real postseason success. You can win national championships at Auburn, and the roster that Hugh Freeze has built there, would be capable if he hadn’t gotten it so wrong at the quarterback position.
Franklin could recruit like a top 10 program with Auburn’s resources, and though Kalen DeBoer seems to have Alabama atop the SEC again, it’s not like he’d be signing up to trade punches with Nick Saban. Especially if Franklin can keep top talent like Cam Coleman in place, he’d be entering a situation where he could win right away.
Another SEC program that has yet to pull the trigger and fire its coach, but almost certainly will. Florida routinely plays one of the toughest schedules in the country, adding matchups with Miami and Florida State on top of its annual SEC allotment. However, Florida has more than enough high school talent to go around, and with the 12-team CFP, a 9-3 regular season record, with that schedule, may still get you a seat at the table.
Florida, like Auburn, is a place where you can win national championships, and though Kirby Smart looms as the boogeyman to the north of Gainesville, Franklin is a clear upgrade over Billy Napier and would have the Gators competing for SEC Titles in short order.