Some employees at Penn State believe the university has shown its true colors by paying James Franklin $49 million not to coach the football team.
Penn State fired Franklin on Sunday following three straight losses — and 12 years in Happy Valley — putting them on the hook for more than $49 million owed to the coach.
”It’s a slap in the face to everyone who was told that their campus is too expensive and not good enough to keep open,” Penn State Fayette librarian Heather Page told according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. . “They want to pay this man. They [don’t] want to pay for the campuses. It’s how they show their values.”
Page added that Sunday’s news proves school leaders will “find a way to pay for whatever they want to pay for.”
The branch campus that Page works for is one of seven commonwealth campuses — including the New Kensington, Fayette and Shenango locations in Western Pennsylvania — that were announced as part of the university’s upcoming closures to cut costs amid enrollment shifts.
Franklin’s $49 million buyout is equivalent to about six years of budget at the university’s New Kensington campus, English professor Andrea Adolph told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“That kind of payout is just ridiculous. It’s another wild, ‘let them eat cake’ [moment],” Adolph said, adding that she understands Penn State’s athletic budget is separate from its general education budget.
Last month Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi received a 47 percent pay raise, making her one of the highest-paid public university leaders in the country, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Adolph said she believes Bendapudi’s raise and Franklin’s buyout are signs that Penn State leadership decisions have “nothing to do with the reality” of university employees and students.
Franklin’s $49 million buyout is second-biggest buyout in college football history after former Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher’s $76 million buyout.
Associate head coach Terry Smith will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season, said Patrick Kraft, vice president for intercollegiate athletics, who will lead the national search for the next head coach.
The move came after a double-overtime loss to Oregon, 30-24, on Sept. 27, followed by a 42-37 loss to UCLA at the Rose Bowl, and a 22-21 loss to Northwestern at home on Saturday.
The Nittany Lions lost their quarterback, Drew Allar, to a season-ending injury late in the fourth quarter on Saturday at Beaver Stadium.
Franklin, 53, has an overall record of 104-45, tying him for the second-winningest coach in the history of Penn State football.
Penn State won 13 games last season and lost in the College Football Playoff semifinal to Notre Dame.
Source link
