James Franklin Says Nick Saban Should be CFB Commissioner amid NIL, Transfer Changes

It has been a time of upheaval in college football the past few years, and Penn State head coach James Franklin would like a legend of the sport to help stabilize everything.

Franklin called former Alabama head coach Nick Saban "the obvious choice" to be the commissioner of college football.

"It's one of these things that we can't just keep talking about that this is a challenge and a problem in college football," he said. "We've gotta come up with some solutions. We've been talking about this for a while, and a lot of different people have brought it up. I'm one of the people who feel very very strongly that we need a commissioner of college football. We need somebody that's waking up every single morning and going to bed every single night thinking about what's in the best interest of college football."

Just in the past handful of years alone, college football has seen drastic conference realignment, the expansion of the College Football Playoff from four teams to 12, the implementation of looser transfer rules with the portal, and opportunities for athletes to earn more money through name, image and likeness.

The timing of the calendar has also come under scrutiny, as the early signing period for high school prospects and the opening of the December transfer portal all happen in between the end of the regular season and the start of the CFP and bowl games.

That means coaches and programs are juggling preparing for important playoff games, recruiting high school prospects, re-recruiting their own rosters to avoid players entering the portal and looking into the portal for potential outside additions all at the same time.

While there have certainly been positives with players having more freedom to find better situations via transfers and earning the chance to make money, so many significant changes have also created something of a chaotic environment that, as Franklin mentioned, is difficult to navigate.

Franklin also advocated for eliminating conference championship games and having every league play the same amount of conference games to create a situation where it is easier for the CFP selection committee to compare resumes in an "apples to apples" way in the expanded playoff era.

Yet it is difficult to envision conference championship games being taken away given the money and attention they draw.

"If every decision we make is based on money, then we're heading in the wrong direction," Franklin said.

As for Saban, he was the king of the sport when he coached at Alabama. His program was the gold standard during his tenure that included six national championships, and his retirement after the 2023 campaign sent shockwaves throughout the college football community.

The 73-year-old spent this past season working on ESPN's College GameDay pregame show and might not want the additional responsibilities that would come with being the college football commissioner. Franklin even joked that Saban would call him following these comments and tell him to stop.

For now, there remains no commissioner in college football. But some of the changes are benefiting Franklin's Penn State squad, which is in the expanded 12-team CFP field and three wins away from a national title even though it wouldn't have made a four-team field.