James Franklin concerned about current uncertainties for B1G's Champions Week
Penn State head coach James Franklin doesn’t seem too happy about all the uncertainties for the Big Ten’s Champions week.
After their regular-season finale against Michigan State on Saturday, the Nittany Lions are supposed to have a game scheduled against a team in the west division of the conference. That rings true for the rest of the teams in the B1G.
That still hasn’t been decided yet with almost a week to go before those matchups, yet the Big Ten made an announcement Wednesday to put Ohio State in the conference championship game.
Here’s what Franklin had to say about the potential Week 9 games during his post-practice media availability:
James Franklin a little annoyed by uncertainty of time/place/opponent of next week’s game. Was told last week that East teams would host home games. Said he heard today that might not be the case. Main issue is that it means East going to West two years in a row on schedules.
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) December 9, 2020
Penn State knows about as much as we do about the Week 9 games…. which isn't much.
James Franklin: We don't know where the games are, we don't know who we're playing and on top of that we're hearing that games could be Friday or Saturday."
— Audrey Snyder (@audsnyder4) December 9, 2020
Franklin continued, saying that the plan is still changing as of this morning.
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) December 9, 2020
Franklin on possibly playing next Friday: "That's the other problem: We don't know where the games are, we don't know who we're playing."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) December 9, 2020
With the games coming up quickly, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see an announcement from the conference as early as Thursday about who will play who and where those games will be played. All teams would need this information as they need to start prepping for their opponent.
As for this Saturday, the kickoff for Penn State-Michigan State will be at 3:30 p.m. ET and it will be televised by ESPN.
