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James Franklin comments on buyout structure of his Penn State extension
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James Franklin and Penn State AD Sandy Barbour spoke to the media about what led to the head coach’s new contract extension on Wednesday.
The longtime Penn State coach signed a 10-year, $85 million extension that sparked a lot of discussion. However, what really got people talking was the buyout clause included in it.
Franklin’s buyout should he leave for another job was set at $12 million until April 2022 and then $8 million through December. It’ll drop to $6 million in 2023, $2 million in 2024-25, and $1 million each year from 2026 through 2030.
The buyout clause is large, but Franklin stated in an interview after practice on Wednesday that he actually didn’t have anything to do with the size of it or how it was structured per 247Sports’ Will Backus.
“To be honest with you, I wasn’t really kind of involved in that,” Franklin said. “It wasn’t really a goal. I don’t really have an answer for that, because I really didn’t have kind of a goal going into it. And I think what happens is there’s kind of standard practice out there that the Administration uses and that you know, the people that handle this kind of contractual type stuff. But I didn’t really have a goal going into it.”
The coach had previously been linked to open positions at USC and LSU.
“Obviously you guys talk about those things,” Franklin said, “When you talk about beating some of the people in this conference that we’ve beaten that other people haven’t, when you talk about a Big Ten championship—and there hasn’t been too many other (programs) get Big Ten championships. I think we’ve done some good things but obviously there’s a next plateau that we have to get to. And I recognize that and I’m committed to doing whatever possible to help us get there with the help of a lot of other people that it takes us back to the alignment.”
Franklin and Penn State finish off the regular season against No. 12 Michigan State Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
Grant Bricker covers the B1G for Saturday Tradition. His previous stops include the Williamson Homepage and Nashville Post.