Penn State’s James Franklin says Nick Saban should be commish

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Penn State coach James Franklin on Sunday added his name to the growing list of college football voices who believe the sport needs a commissioner and thinks there’s one man right for the job.

Speaking at media availability for the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, Franklin said former Alabama coach Nick Saban is the “obvious choice” to navigate college football through a period of sweeping change.

“I think one of the most important things we can do is, let’s get a commissioner of college football that is waking up every single morning and going to bed every single night making decisions that’s in the best interest of college football,” Franklin said. “I think Nick Saban would be the obvious choice if we made that decision. Now, Nick will probably call me tonight and say, ‘Don’t do this,’ but I think he’s the obvious choice, right?”

Franklin is not alone in nominating Saban for the hypothetical job. Last week, Ole Miss coach and former Saban assistant Lane Kiffin posted on X that he would vote for Saban in that role.

On Sunday, Franklin added that hiring a commissioner would be an important first step to “move forward and come up with some solutions” to the transfer portal and NIL, but he also didn’t hold back on offering some of his own.

Franklin was asked about what could be done to incentivize players to stay on rosters and continue to compete through the end of the season, and he said it’s time for leaders throughout the sport to stop talking about the issues and start solving them.

He proposed eliminating conference championship games so the season is shorter and the College Football Playoff selection committee can have a more fair comparison.

“When you have a committee sitting in a room trying to compare apples to apples, or oranges to oranges, it’s hard to do that when not everybody’s playing under the same model,” he said. “Get rid of the conference championship game. That will shorten the season and help with the window a little bit.”

He also suggested every conference play the same number of league games — eight or nine — and start the season a week earlier to “take some stress off of the academic calendar.”

“God forbid we talk about academics, right?” he said. “That used to be every conversation started with academics and that’s becoming less and less. Maybe I’m old school and maybe I’m a traditionalist, but I still believe in the model. Rather than just say this is a problem, I thought I would throw out a few recommendations, but I think one of the most important things we can do is let’s get a commissioner of college football.”

Franklin said the current leadership in college athletics, which is driven by one commissioner for each conference, isn’t working.

“Whenever you have people that are making decisions and running college football, they’re going to be biased towards what’s best to their conference, and that’s not in the best interest of college football and the student athletes,” he said. “… If every decision we make is based on money, then we’re heading in the wrong direction.”

Franklin’s Nittany Lions will take on Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday night (7:30 ET, ESPN) in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff.