James Franklin Fired by Penn State Amid Sponsor Issues

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Transcript

00:00The college football world was stunned to see James Franklin get fired by Penn State

00:06and basically not have to work for the rest of his life based on this buyout money. Let's tap

00:11into this a little bit more with Bill Bender from Sporting News before we get to some of the games

00:16this past weekend. And, you know, Bill, I guess I should have saw it coming because I saw one

00:23report, and you tell me if this is accurate or not. I don't know in your reporting or seeing

00:27what's going on, that this was coming because the sponsorship company Adidas had something

00:33to do with it in terms of boosters. When that kind of money gets loud, Bill, it's over for

00:39you as a head coach. Like when you don't have the support of your number one NIL fund, so

00:44to speak, you're going to be in big trouble. Somebody from Adidas must have been at these

00:47games watching what was going on here. Because other than that, Franklin's record has been

00:50fantastic there. Yeah, I think some of that has been denied since. But I mean, you're

00:55talking about a coach, Craig, with a 698 winning percentage. Jimmy Johnson had a 699 winning

01:01percentage in college. So it's not like he wasn't winning. He just didn't have the benefit

01:06of a national title. This year, obviously, has become a little bit of a train wreck.

01:11And I think for Penn State, now the question becomes, are you really going to take that next

01:17step and be a national championship contender? They'd be lying if they say they're that right

01:21now. They haven't won a national title in 40 years. James Franklin had them in a spot

01:25where they would be in playoff contention. But there is a difference when you want to

01:29take that step to be the next big thing.