James Franklin on gap behind Big Ten, SEC: ‘I don’t think it’s even close’

The SEC and Big Ten grow more powerful by the day in college football. After Penn State‘s win over Purdue on Saturday, Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin asserted that the talent in the two conferences is easily superior to other conferences around the country.

“You look at our conference from top to bottom, I know everybody, all coaches, kind of get up talk about their conference, and they’re biased, but I think the metrics and the data speak about it. You look at our conference, the Big Ten and the SEC, I don’t think it’s even close,” Franklin said. “You better be ready week in and week out.

“I don’t think the staff and the players get enough credit for how hard that is. When I talk about staff, the assistants and the coordinators, how hard it is to week in and week out to have your team ready to play. The players are really doing a great job with that. So are the assistant coaches.”

The SEC and Big Ten have 12 teams in the AP Top 25. The two conferences are held in even higher regard by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, which ranked 13 teams between the two conferences in its CFP rankings.

Nonetheless, the ACC and Big 12 may not be so quick to bend the knee to the other two conferences in the Power Four. After all, with budding programs like Miami and Colorado in each respective conference, they certainly don’t lack talent, either.

Franklin seemingly believes while the ACC and Big 12 have talented teams, they lack the depth the Big Ten and SEC boast in spades.

“You see some of these schools that maybe have one or two big games a year that they got to get up for. That’s different,” Franklin said. “So I’m proud of our guys and how they’re doing it, week in and week out. And again, we just want to get better.”