Big Ten, PSU football could be impacted by proposed rules changes

Penn State head coach James Franklin has long advocated for annual assessments within the Big Ten.

Whether revisiting conference division alignment, an ongoing gripe of Franklin’s, or the Big Ten’s championship game setup, or any of the other rules dictated within the league, the practice is one he considers healthy. 

“In my opinion, it should be a discussion, an honest, transparent conversation every year that the head coaches, ADs, commissioner have about what’s in the conference’s best interest long term,” Franklin said last season. “And not just study the Big Ten. Study other conferences as well, scheduling philosophies, all of it. I think that’s a healthy thing to do to get as many different perspectives on these decisions as possible.”

According to a report from Athlon Sports columnist Bryan Fischer on Wednesday, the Big Ten’s options might expand in that regard in the near future.

Proposed NCAA D1 rules changes

In a Tweet, Fischer reported that the NCAA Division I Council is set to discuss and vote on some key issues in the coming weeks. Among them, the council is likely to waive the 25-man counter limit in football for the next two seasons. The temporary rule change would allow programs to “go above the 25/32 limit” as soon as the end of May.

The second would include a revisitation of potentially relaxing conference championship game rules.

As it stands, FBS conferences are required to have divisions in order to have conference championship games. Under the new proposal, of which the Big 12 is in favor as it looks to pair its two best teams in a championship game, that condition would no longer apply.

“Council also set to discuss recent change to allow conferences to determine conference title game teams,” Fischer wrote. “Big 12 is for it with move to 14 teams and Pac-12 has discussed schedule changes to get top two teams to play instead of division split.”

While the issue of the Big Ten moving from nine conference games to eight appears to be dead, a January report from The Athletic suggested strongly that the league would consider upending its divisional format.

From the report: “There also are serious discussions about the Big Ten ending divisional play with schools playing three opponents annually and cycling through the other 10 teams either every other year or two years on, two years off.”

As explained by Iowa AD Gart Barta to reporter Scott Dochterman, the reasoning was very much along the lines of what Franklin has repeatedly proposed.

“What gives us the best opportunity to have the most success in the College Football Playoff format?”

In the time since the January report, the CFP has put on ice conversation about expansion for the immediate future. 

Impact on Big Ten, Penn State

Still, in a recent interview with Rich Eisen, Franklin offered that uniformity is lacking, and necessary, across the game. So while his opinion isn’t strong as a proponent or opponent of playoff expansion, other standards should be addressed.

“I just think it needs to be consistent across the board,” Franklin said. “I think everybody should be playing the same number of games. Everybody should be (the same with) playing FCS opponents. Those are the things that to me, I’m more passionate about,”

While happy to entertain expansion to 12 teams, he said two or three teams winning the championship every year should be avoided. 

“I don’t think we need to go to what basketball has done with 65 teams,” Franklin said. “But I do think every major conference there champion should be in.  I do also believe if there’s two teams for one conference, it should be the best teams in college football. And I think everybody should have that opportunity. Obviously, the group of five has done some some fantastic things as well. And they deserve an opportunity. 

“So I think I think by expanding a little bit allows you to do that. We won the Big Ten championship a few years back and didn’t get in the playoffs. That’s a hard pill to swallow. But, I don’t think we need to go too far with it.”

If the reported changes come to fruition, and the Big Ten follows suit, that could soon change.