James Franklin considers how Big Ten expansion impacts spring practice plan

As conference realignment takes root this offseason and the additions to the Big Ten and SEC become official, member schools are grappling with what exactly the new changes will mean for them.

And with a forward outlook, there might even be some things that subtly shift this spring for those programs as they prepare to face their new league cohorts.

But at least one coach, Penn State‘s James Franklin, doesn’t believe the addition of Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington will have a significant impact on how his team governs itself in spring practice.

“I would say no. I think if this was maybe 15 years ago in the Big Ten and everybody had to, under league rules, line up with a fullback and run power, then maybe,” Franklin said. “But I think if you look, most of the offenses in the Big Ten are very similar in a lot of ways to what that other conference looked like. If you look at the way USC operates and Oregon and Washington and UCLA, I think the leagues probably look more similar in terms of style of play than maybe ever before.”

That’s not to say that there won’t be some significant prep done in spring ball on these opponents. College coaches love to plan ahead as much as they can.

So even if most of the game-planning will come about in the summer months, any tweaks needed for spring practice will go in now.

“Obviously we’re going to have to get into in detail studying those people, but in terms of, again, like we’re all lining up and running Power I and they’re all spread, I don’t really see that as a major challenge or issue,” Franklin said. “But I also think that diversity is also what makes the Big Ten kind of special and fun, that you get a combination of all those types of things. So I would say no.”

James Franklin circling travel practices

The one thing Franklin did hone in on when asked if the inclusion of the four former Pac-12 members will significantly change things is the travel schedule.

Penn State plans to do plenty of prep on best practices.

“I think the biggest thing that we’re probably looking at and was part of the discussions with the Big Ten when we were coming up with scheduling as well is you just can’t treat everybody the same,” Franklin said. “If you look at us and Rutgers, I think the most northeast teams, the travel is very different for us than it would be for maybe a Nebraska. So how are we going to handle that? How are we going to handle the travel?

“If you look at whether it’s major college football or you look at the NFL, you look at the teams traveling west and what their records have been like compared to the teams that are traveling east and what their records are like and be very honest and thorough about that and what we’re going to have to do to put us in the best position to make those trips and be successful. That’s things as a football program that we need to look at. That’s things as an athletic department that we need to look at and make sure that we’re making the right choices to put our players and our program in the best chance to be successful.”

Franklin has been in series before that required coast-to-coast travel, so he’s got a little bit of history to lean on as the Big Ten expands.

He explained.

“I’ll never forget when I was at the University of Maryland, I think I may have mentioned this to you guys before, I’m not sure if I did, but I was the University of Maryland, we schedule a home-and-home with Cal,” Franklin said. “The AD had come from Cal. And they came to our place and I think we played them at 11 a.m. and that went very well for the east coast team, the Maryland Terrapins at the time. Then the next year we went out there and I think it was a 7 p.m. game and that went very well for the team from California.

“So just taking all those things into consideration and having a plan of best practices based on NFL teams and what they do, college teams and what we need to do to be successful, that’s probably where a lot of our time is being spent on what is the best way to do this while still making sure that our guys are student-athletes and getting that type of experience.”