Hogs fans delusional out of lack of self love when it comes to Franklin's decision

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — In high school I never dated the Homecoming queen.

However, that didn't mean she turned me down. It also doesn't mean I turned her down.

She was considered pretty by basically everyone around town. Through most of our interactions, she seemed nice overall.

Whether she thought I might be handsome in some way and a respectable gentleman I never knew even though we were somewhat friends. I didn't care either. She simply wasn't my type.

I had zero interest in her and would be surprised to hear she had the tiniest bit of interest in me. However, that's not a slight toward either of us.

We were not a fit in any way, shape or form and there was no reason to think about or explore a relationship that would have been dead before it ever started. While it seems impossible for Arkansas fans to comprehend, that's exactly the case between the Razorbacks and former Penn State coach James Franklin.

Despite strong evidence to the contrary, Hogs fans seem bent on believing they were not only turned down, but outbid by Virginia Tech. They are in a downright tail spin, voicing to all who will hear that the program is in shambles because Franklin might as well have called them personally and said they weren't good enough.

Was there the briefest of exploratory phone call, text or e-mail by Franklin's agent? It's possible because it would have been considered malpractice for that not to be the case in the earliest possible stage.

The agent's job initially is to present a list of which schools have even the most minimal interest and a range of how much money that might possibly entail for leverage purposes. The more schools linked to a client, no matter how loose, the better for momentum and negotiation purposes.

Meanwhile, on the Arkansas side, it's Yurachek's responsibility to say he kicked the tires on literally every potential candidate available and Franklin was very publicly available after his controversial firing. That meant he could be checked off early.

This involves a short talk with the agent, and then, if he really wanted to be able to tell certain people he tried, Yurachek could have picked a discreet booster to send to meet with Franklin in person. If his agent made it clear Arkansas wasn't really interested, or, if Franklin, as was often reported, didn't have a real desire to be in the SEC, then he could bring the whole charade to an end by simply finding an excuse to not show, giving both sides plausible deniability while moving on.

It may not have played out exactly that way, but it's probably not very far off considering the stories that trickled out among the noise that aligned with how things played out Monday evening. However, the one thing that is 99.9% certain is Arkansas wasn't outbid for Franklin.

Think about it. If it were a case of money, Franklin would be signing a deal with Auburn or even possibly Florida right now.

We're talking about the most successful coach on the market by a mile. There's no way a program that has had to hand out buyouts like candy canes at Christmas such as Auburn would allow itself to be outbid by Virginia Tech, a team in the conference known mostly for how pathetic it's television deal happens to be.

The Hokies couldn't have even outbid cash-strapped Arkansas. The Hogs are SEC poor, not poor, poor. Sam Pittman, even though he came in without so much as an offensive coordinator credential, made significantly more money than former Hokies coach Brent Pry while simultaneously being the fourth lowest paid coach in the SEC.

Franklin, like a lot of potential candidates involved in the many coaching search discussions, want no part of the SEC. Teams good enough to win the Big 12 or ACC or finish third or fourth in the Big Ten can easily finish in the bottom four of the SEC just because of how difficult the conference is.

While SEC teams face five or six Top 25 teams by default, joining any other conference means going up against one or two at most. That's a dramatically easier path to the playoffs with far fewer elite coaches to game plan against on a weekly basis.

Only the most egotistical of coaches on the planet dare step into the rigors of the SEC. Franklin just put up with a school that was eager to fire him because he only made the College Football Playoff semifinals last season.

He dared only go 34-8 the previous three seasons. Why would any coach expect to keep his job winning 11 1/3 games each season, capped off by 13 wins last year?

SEC fan bases get delusional and imagine each defeat is actually three losses. Even at Arkansas, this tends to be the case, and one-score losses count as four except for Bobby Petrino, for whom they count as wins apparently.

That means the Razorbacks just aren't Franklin's type. That's also not a desirable trait for a candidate Yurachek would want to consider, so the lack of interest is mutual.

It doesn't mean the college football community thinks Franklin is generally considered pretty from a coaching ability standpoint. It doesn't mean he's not seen as a nice guy.

There's just no interest between the two and that's a good thing. It would never work, even if he's considered coaching search royalty.

So no need to get your long johns in a bunch. Franklin didn't turn you down, nor did he reject your favorite team.

And last of all, there's basically zero chance this was a case of being outbid. There's just a better fit out there waiting.

The only question is whether he's going to be able to see it.

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