James Franklin left zero doubt how Penn State feels about a potential Big Ten Championship Game appearance.

To be fair, it’s not a clear-cut scenario for Penn State to reach Indianapolis. Oregon awaits, but Penn State would need to beat Maryland had have Ohio State fall to Michigan in The Game for the Nittany Lions to meet the Ducks in Indy.

However, the topic of risk vs. reward of playing in a conference championship game has been a topic of discussion in relation to the College Football Playoff. Some have argued the risk of a loss knocking you out of the final field trumps the potential reward of winning a league championship and a potential first-round bye.

That, to put it mildly, is not the mindset of Franklin. Asked about that scenario on Monday, Franklin said the hypothetical “what if” scenarios have not been discussed internally. Doing so would take away from the sole focus of beating the Terrapins.

“I haven’t spent a whole lot of time thinking about that. I’m literally completely focused on the Terps and the University of Maryland,” said Franklin, “and after that game, there’s a lot of other things that I think have to happen. But that is a possibility.”

However, Franklin did make it clear Penn State wants as many chances as possible to compete with this team. If their number was called, the Nittany Lions would be excited to play for a B1G title.

“For us, we want an opportunity to compete as many times as we possibly can this year. And if that includes a conference championship game, we would be very excited about that opportunity,” said Franklin. “Again, all we have to do is focus on playing Maryland this week. And if we’re not focused on that, a lot of these other things that people want to talk about become questionable.”

Penn State has not been to the B1G Championship Game since winning the league in 2016. That also marks the last season that a team other than Ohio State or Michigan has lifted the trophy.

We’ll see if the Nittany Lions get the chance to play for another title this season.