James Franklin the second-most overpaid coach in college football?

Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher has been highly scrutinized this season for having such a giant contract with little to show for it. With no division championships, no SEC titles, and no College Football Playoff appearances to show for a massive fully-guaranteed 10-year contract valued at $95 million, Fisher’s shortcomings with the Aggies never go unnoticed. And in the Big Ten, James Franklin draws similar criticisms.

USA TODAY Sports labeled Franklin as one of the most overpaid coaches in college football in 2022, with only Fisher being considered more overpaid for the list of accomplishments to their names.

Here is what USA TODAY had to say about Franklin and his contract;

If potential was the standard on which companies based their employees’ worth in terms of dollars, Franklin would top this list every year. In his ninth season at Penn State, he is already on his fourth contract. Franklin has won about two-thirds of his games with the school, but for a total compensation of $8.5 million, the Nittany Lions should be dominating the competition. Penn State has won one Big Ten title during his tenure and that was six seasons ago, but it upped the dough when Franklin’s name was attached to the Southern California opening, despite the team being on its way to a 7-6 campaign in 2021.

It is fair to suggest Penn State has not been as successful as one might hope with a coach being paid as much as Franklin is. But to completely ignore two New Years Six bowl victories when evaluating the overall job performance is unfair. Franklin has just the one Big Ten championship but is in a conference where Ohio State is annually on a different level. Of course, the hope is that Penn State can prove worthy of being on that level, and a coach being paid top dollar is expected to build that in the time he has been on campus.

Some may give a pass for the results of the 2020 season, but coming up with a mediocre 2021 season to follow that up did little to defend Franklin’s rep. That is what makes this weekend’s road game at Michigan so important for the image of not just Franklin as a head coach, but Penn State as a program.

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Franklin’s history on the road, after a bye, and against top-ranked competition will once again be under a microscope this weekend when Penn State visits the No. 4 Wolverines, a team that was in the College Football Playoff last season as the Big Ten champion. If not for those accolades, Jim Harbaugh would be in a very similar conversation as Franklin. The two head coaches have each been successful more often than not at their respective programs and each has one Big Ten title under their belts, and each has just one win against Ohio State to show for it. But Harbaugh has the playoff appearance that Franklin is still striving for, and that is the biggest difference between the two.

A win against Michigan is far from a clincher for a playoff spot with Penn State still having to play Ohio State, but it is an important step forward for this season and the future. A loss will only add to the overpaid conversation for Franklin. A win though will merely put the conversation on hold for another couple of weeks. Fortunately, Fisher will be there to grab the spotlight in the conversation in the meantime.

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Story originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire