James Franklin Explains His Coaches Poll Voting Process

During his weekly press conference Monday, Penn State coach James Franklin talked about how he approaches being a voter for the US LBM Coaches Poll. 

Each week, AP voters cast their ballots for the Top 25 teams in college football. In a few weeks, the College Football Playoff committee will begin to meet and determine the 25 programs on tract towards reaching the 12-team CFP field. 

One poll often overlooked is the Coaches Poll. Each week, coaches selected by random draw at the start of the campaign submit a Top 25 ranking. 

The AFCA coaches poll is chosen at random, conference by conference, by select coaches who wish to participate. The Penn State coach is one of the interested parties. 

Many wonder how a journalist or coach puts their list together. Franklin took us behind the curtain this week.

“Basically, I think Sunday mornings, that’s got to be in I think by 12:00,” Franklin said. Michael Hazel used to put this together for us. Now Will Reiman does that. He puts it together for us.”

How does Franklin evaluate who to put on his submission ballot and where?

“We typically have the AP Poll last week, the Coaches Poll and then how we voted last week,” Franklin said. “They’re usually always pretty consistent for the most part, to be honest with you.

“I look at that, and then I look at whoever lost that week, whoever won that week that was in the Top 25, who should come out of the Top 25, who should go into the Top 25 based on the previous weeks.”

A first-place vote is worth 25 points, second-place vote 24, third-place 23, and so on. 

In an ever-changing college football landscape down to the Power 4 and one Group of 5 team making the CFP, Franklin heavily emphasizes teams playing at the highest level of competition. Most of the time, there isn’t much variation between different published polls. 

“I’m also a big proponent of the power conferences just based on the competition that they play week-in and week-out and the challenges that come with that, but for the most part it’s very, very similar to what you see out there publicly,” James Franklin said. “There’s very little differences between the AP Poll, the Coaches Poll, and our poll that we put out every single week.”

Penn State ranks No. 3 in this week’s AP and Coaches Poll, no change from last week after sitting idle for the second time. No. 1 Oregon tops the list, followed by No. 5 Ohio State on PSU’s heals leading into the biggest game of the season next Saturday in Happy Valley. 

“We’re the same way we look at everybody else. Typically, again, it’s pretty consistent, right? I think all three of us had it ranked exactly the same way this past week,” Franklin said. “There’s sometimes where Penn State is voted lower than what other maybe publications have us ranked, and there’s a few times where we’ve been ranked a little bit higher. Obviously, it all comes out in the averages.”

6-0 Penn State is on its way to their first College Football Playoff appearance in school history, but the road gets narrower over the next few weeks. Penn State plays Wisconsin in Madison Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in what is sure to be a raucous, jump-around crowd eager for an upset. The Buckeyes play at Beaver Stadium the following Saturday at Noon. 

If James Franklin and Penn State beat Ohio State and take care of business in November, Indianapolis and a possible top-four seed, with a first-round bye that comes with it, is calling their name. One game at a time, but everything is in front of Penn State to make this a memorable season.