James Franklin says Big Ten, SEC are football’s toughest conferences: ‘I don’t think it’s even close’

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — James Franklin turned a question about getting younger players snaps at Purdue into an answer about the Big Ten, SEC and college football's toughest conferences.

Franklin was asked after Penn State's blowout win over Purdue about getting underclassmen playing time. The Nittany Lions won, 49-10, allowing Drew Allar , Tyler Warren and Co. to exit early and giving backups like Beau Pribula, Luke Reynolds and others more snaps.

Franklin said it was "really important" to be able to do that, especially with another road game at Minnesota coming up for the Nittany Lions. Penn State has two games left in its regular season (at Minnesota, vs. Maryland) before a potential first-round College Football Playoff game.

From there, Franklin delved into what he believes the Big Ten to be: one of the strongest conferences in the country, alongside the SEC, and tougher than the ACC, Big 12 and the rest.

"You look at our conference, top to bottom, I know everybody and all coaches kind of get up and talk about their conference, and they're biased. But I think the metrics and the data speak about it. You look at our conference, the Big Ten, and the SEC, and I don't think it's even close," Franklin said. "You better be ready week in and week out. I don't think the staff and the players get enough credit for how hard that is."

Franklin's answer was perhaps a subtle (or not so subtle) response to some of the national conversations surrounding the Big Ten as it relates to the CFP.

This past week, four Big Ten teams — Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State and Indiana — were ranked inside the top five of the CFP committee rankings. No other Big Ten team was ranked. The SEC had six teams ranked inside the top 15.

Meanwhile, the highest-ranked ACC team was No. 9 Miami, followed by No. 14 SMU. Both teams have one loss — just like Ohio State and Penn State. That seemingly rubbed SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee the wrong way earlier this week.

"I will say this on behalf of the ACC, there's brand biases for teams. And there's conference bias," Lashlee told reporters. "I think it's interesting that you look at the ACC, we have a winning record against the Big Ten this year. ... So to look at our league and say we may be a one-bid league, but you look at another league that we have a winning record against and say they're gonna get four in, it doesn't make sense to me."

It is true that the ACC has a 3-2 record against the Big Ten this year. Boston College, Duke and North Carolina have wins over Michigan State, Northwestern and Minnesota, respectively. Rutgers and Maryland beat Virginia Tech and Virginia, respectively.

Does that matter? Not really.

But it is November, and we're getting closer and closer to the final set of CFP rankings. So don't be surprised if coaches across the country — including Franklin — continue to stump for their conferences.