James Franklin Echoes Wolverines' Sentiments On Big Ten Postponement

After several former U-M football players spoke out in disapproval of the Big Ten, Penn State head coach James Franklin followed a similar route shortly thereafter.

With football in the ACC and the Big 12 set to begin this weekend and in the SEC later this month, pressure continues to mount on the Big Ten for its decision to postpone fall sports. Earlier today, Brandon Brown highlighted how several prominent former Michigan football players have made a point to voice their displeasure on the current state of affairs, and even Penn State head coach James Franklin agreed that the Big Ten's actions have been unacceptable.

“It's been challenging, as you guys know,” Franklin said. “I think the big challenge as the head football coach is that your players and your parents think that you have all the answers to what's going on, but the reality is, we're dependent on the Big Ten to drive this thing forward. It's been challenging. It truly has.”

Ever since the Big Ten first released its conference-only schedule last month, head coaches across the conference have been forced to act as a modicum of communication between the league administrators and active football players. But as the football season was promptly postponed and rumors continue to circulate, coaches like Franklin are left with more questions than answers. And that is precisely the biggest problem of all.

“In terms of where we're at, I'm not really sure,” Franklin said. “I think that's part of the problem. To me, I've said this from the beginning, I don't necessarily have an issue with the decision. I got an issue with the process, and I got an issue with the timing. To be able to stand up in front of your team and parents and tell them that the season is canceled/postponed but not have any answers as to how that affects their future and when we will be playing football and still haven't a month later, that's the hard part. It's been really, really challenging.”

While the Big Ten may have acted by the books when it postponed the season from a health and safety standpoint, the entire process has highlighted deeper issues within the conference. Communication clearly is a weak point if Franklin and others are left in the dark on what is going on, which only leads to more questions from active players.

“It seemed from our point of view a little shady,” Michigan quarterback Dylan McCaffrey said during Saturday's protest. “We didn't hear anything. We were getting our information from Twitter, and we're the ones it's directly effecting. We just feel the decisions were made by a lot of people that it doesn't directly effect. I guess we want to know exactly who was involved and who voted against it. In that, we'd love to just be able to talk to them and share our point of view as well, which we feel we were not able to share at all.”

Though the pandemic has been difficult to navigate for everybody involved, the Big Ten has a responsibility to its member institutions to guide the conference with a steady hand. The fact that the COVID-19 situation is still developing cannot be used as an excuse to go silent. Rather, the uncertain waters of the pandemic need to inspire Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren to make more public statements. Through his leadership, schools can effectively communicate with their players and the families of said players, and the entire football community can feel a bit more at ease that the right precautions are being taken. It is through these murky times that Warren can solidify himself as the right leader for the Big Ten Conference.

“I think a big part of leadership is to be able to deliver answers to people's questions and also to be able to drive people towards a vision and drive people towards a plan,” Franklin said. “Right now, we don't have those things.”

Do you think the Big Ten has handled the postponement of the fall football season correctly? If not, what would you have done differently? Let us know!