COLUMBUS, Ohio — The expansion of the College Football Playoff was supposed to help James Franklin at Penn State, but it might’ve accelerated his demise instead.

The Big Ten expanding to 18 teams and getting rid of divisions was supposed to eliminate the excuse that the reason his program couldn’t break through every year it ran into Ohio State and Michigan.

The College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams was supposed to help a team that habitually went 10-2 with no bad losses by still providing a chance to compete in the postseason.

Yet here we are, less than two years into this new era of college football, and instead of thriving, Franklin has been fired after the most disappointing season of his 12-year tenure .

The Nittany Lions went 104–45 and 64–36 during his time, winning

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