Why hasn't James Franklin's extension been settled yet?

When Penn State was preparing for the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Lions athletic director Sandy Barbour was asked about a new contract for James Franklin.

Regardless of if the Lions ended up getting blown out in the Rose Bowl, Franklin proved himself worthy of an extension. Barbour knew that. That’s why she sounded optimistic about a new deal getting done in the near future.

“Lots going on,” Barbour told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

She added that things were moving “were moving along,” which led some — like Pennlive.com — to predict that a deal would be done by the middle of January. It would’ve served as an important development right before National Signing Day.

But now, it’s the last week of February and still, there’s no new contract. That could’ve been for a variety of reasons, none of which had to do with Franklin being seriously interested in an NFL job as some speculated. All we know is that there haven’t been any official developments yet.

So why is that the case?

Franklin’s original six-year deal was a lucrative one. It paid him an average of $4.5 million annually through the 2019 season, which made him the B1G’s second-highest paid coach. In 2016, Franklin was tied with Kirk Ferentz as the B1G’s third-highest paid coach. That mark was good for 10th nationally.

Naturally, Franklin would leverage the magical 2016 season into a bigger contract. The question was how much and how long?

We obviously don’t know what numbers have been thrown out there, but we can speculate what that ballpark could look like.

Let’s start with the money, which should have a pretty specific range at this point. If Franklin was making $4.5 million per year under his original deal, which was with the expectation that he’d get Penn State back to national relevance, then it wouldn’t be crazy if $5 million per year was the minimum asking price.

After all, look at a few of the coaches that were paid more than Franklin in 2016:

Hugh Freeze (Ole Miss), $4.7 million
Gus Malzahn (Auburn), $4.7 million
Kevin Sumlin (Texas A&M), $5 million

Franklin had a better crowning achievement than any of those three coaches. Penn State’s pockets are every bit as deep as those better-than-average SEC programs. If you were Franklin’s agent, you would throw out those numbers, too.

You would probably also point to the fact that Urban Meyer made north of $6 million and Jim Harbaugh averages $5.7 million (not including the life insurance policy). The fact that he beat them out for the division and ultimately won the conference was an obvious notch under Franklin’s belt. The closer he gets to their compensation, the better.

But there’s a ceiling to Franklin’s deal. Unlike Meyer, Bob Stoops, Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban, he doesn’t have any national titles. And he isn’t the proven commodity that Harbaugh is. To think that he’s deserving of more than the $5.25 million Fisher made would be unrealistic.

With those factors considered, the asking price for Franklin’s new deal could be around $5-$5.25 million annually. And considering Meyer and Harbaugh are under contract through 2020 and 2021, respectively, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Franklin’s new deal run through 2022 or 2023.

Then why the holdup? Doesn’t Barbour, who has been extremely supportive of Franklin during his up-and-down three years, want to get this done?

Of course, but it would be understandable if there was some resistance.

Not many coaches go from needing a vote of confidence to earning national honors in a two-month span. That’s how quick Penn State’s turnaround was, and Franklin deservedly got credit for spearheading that effort.

But keep in mind that this is still such a small sample size. Yes, Penn State is expected to be in the College Football Playoff conversation again in 2017, but what if that doesn’t happen? What if Penn State lacks its 2016 mojo and stumbles back to the middle of the B1G East?

The Lions are suddenly sitting there with a coach making $5 million-plus for the next six or seven years and he only has one good season to show for it. Coaches that win 7-8 games shouldn’t make that kind of money. And if they do, they’re on the hot seat because they aren’t meeting expectations.

Is that what’s holding Barbour back from giving Franklin (his agent, really) what he’s asking for? Again, we don’t know, but it wouldn’t be surprising. It seemed like a forgone conclusion that a deal would get done a month ago, which means there’s something preventing it from happening.

Meyer was extended after leading Ohio State to the national championship. Ferentz got a new deal after taking Iowa to the Rose Bowl. Chryst got an extension after taking Wisconsin to the B1G Championship.

For a program that had to dodge recruiting uncertainty surrounding Franklin’s job security and talk of future NCAA sanctions from the Jerry Sandusky fallout, it seemed natural that Penn State would want to capitalize on that momentum.

For all we know, a deal could get done today or tomorrow. But the urgency is gone with the recruiting season over and the NFL coaching carousel shut down. This could easily last into fall camp like Ferentz’s negotiations did.

Negotiations are tricky, especially for someone in Franklin’s position. Only time will tell if and when a compromise is reached.