Expanded playoffs, the flat cap and the Olympics: Union head Marty Walsh on the state of the NHL
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
Before Marty Walsh took over the National Hockey League Players’ Association in February 2023, he witnessed soccer history.
It was Sept. 2022 at Audi Field in Washington, D.C. Having served as Boston’s mayor from 2014 to 2021, Walsh was now the Secretary of Labor under President Biden. Representatives from the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams signed their collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Soccer, with identical pay structures for appearances and tournament victories, as well as revenue sharing and equitable distribution of World Cup prize money.
“I was literally on the field. I was very emotional, representing President Biden and Vice President Harris as that happened,” he said.
A few months later and now Walsh will be the one negotiating a labor deal for athletes after being named the new executive director of the NHLPA, succeeding Donald Fehr. Fehr led the NHLPA from 2010 and negotiated on the players’ behalf through two collective bargaining agreements with NHL owners.
Walsh takes over the NHLPA at a time of temporary labor peace, a few unexpected controversies and a chance to lead the players into even greater levels of celebrity and prosperity.
“I think there’s opportunities for growth in the sport of hockey,” said Walsh, a lifelong hockey fan.
Walsh spoke to ESPN earlier this month on a variety of topics facing the NHLPA and the league itself.
Leading superstars and role players
Walsh is familiar with the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement. It’s printed out on his desk, around an inch-and-a-half thick of bylaws, regulations and all the formalized agreements between the players and the owners.
“I’ll be honest with you: I’ve looked at it a bunch of times, but I haven’t learned every single section of it,” said Walsh. “You don’t really learn about the sections of CBAs until you have a conflict. And then obviously you learn the CBA.”
Walsh has worked with unions before. CBAs are CBAs, covering the same general areas like working conditions, healthcare benefits and pension plans. The difference with the NHL CBA, or that of any pro sport, is on the salary side.
“Generally in a collective bargaining agreement, you’re negotiating for a unit that all makes the same. In this particular case, the benefits are the same, but the salaries are different because they’re negotiated individually, minus the league-minimum salary guys,” he said.
The challenge for Walsh and his predecessors in the NHLPA has been to get all of these players – different salaries, different experience levels, different backgrounds – on the same page for what’s best for the union’s membership as a whole.
“You have 750-plus members and they all have different concerns and different opinions. Where I’m at now, four months in, is really getting to understand where the players are coming from and what they’re concerned about,” said Walsh.
He said that the players understand there are different salary levels in the NHL and “you try to represent them all” as best as an executive director can.
“If I got a call from Nathan MacKinnon, as an example, or from somebody who just came in the league a year ago and is at the league minimum, to me they’re the same person, as far as listening and hearing what their concerns might be,” Walsh said.
CBA concerns
Over the last decade, the NHL has seen franchise valuations boom, to the point where it was reasonable to expect a team like the Ottawa Senators would sell for over $1 billion. (Michael Andlauer’s winning bid came under that, but just barely.)
The NHL has considerable media rights deals in the U.S., Canada and abroad for its games. Sponsor United reported that the NHL’s sponsorship revenue grew 21% in 2022-23 to reach $1.28 billion.
The NHL salary cap in the 2012-13 season was $70.2 million. The salary cap for the 2023-24 season is $83.5 million.
Walsh said in his conversations with players, he heard concerns about the salary cap’s lack of growth. But the “flat cap” due to the COVID pandemic certainly played a role in that lack of exponential growth for the salary cap.
“The salary cap is based off the revenue and in the last couple of years, COVID threw a huge curveball at everyone. If COVID doesn’t happen, the salary cap is going up. Because of COVID, there was a debt that was owed [by the players], and hopefully that’s resolved by the end of next season,” said Walsh. “Then what you have is a system that will be tied into growth and revenue.”
By 2025-26, the cap is expected to rise above $92 million.
That’s growth. But is it growth commiserate with the revenues the league is generating? Is it growth that would put the NHL’s top stars closer to the salaries of counterparts in other pro leagues, or growth that would “un-squeeze” the salaries of veteran role players whose earnings have frequently been casualties of the cap?
“I’m not being critical, but team franchise wealth is certainly growing at a disproportionate [rate] compared to what the players are making,” said Walsh. “You now have a lot of teams in the next couple of years that will be worth a billion dollars, and then you’ll be talking about the $2 billion team.”
Since taking over the NHLPA, Walsh has focused less on the salary cap’s restraints and more on how to “create opportunities for players” within that system. He’s spoken about having the players do more to promote hockey “domestically and internationally” in order to create more relationships and partnerships for “growth in the sport of hockey.”
The current CBA expires on Sept. 15, 2026. As usual, there’s already some consternation on the players’ side about what the owners might try to claw back. One player agent recently voiced a concern to ESPN that the current 50/50 split in league revenues between owners and players could be put on the negotiating table. Please recall that the owners wanted to reduce the players’ share from 57% to around 43% before the sides agreed to a 50/50 split in the 2013 NHL CBA agreement.
Walsh said that he doesn’t see “the benefit for the owners” if they decided to attack the 50/50 revenue split.
“For the most part, there is a lot of peace. I think it’s good for the league to have stability moving forward. It’s good for the players,” said Walsh.
Focus on international hockey
Walsh said his initial conversations with players have yielded a few common themes. They’re worried about salary cap growth. They loathe escrow. And they have a keen interest in the global reach of the NHL – especially when it comes to best-on-best tournaments.
NHL players participated in five consecutive Olympics starting in 1998, but that streak ended after the 2014 Sochi Games. The NHL opted not to send players to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, citing a change in terms with the league’s agreement with the IOC and also because “the overwhelming majority of our clubs” were “adamantly opposed” to disrupting the 2017-18 season for the South Korea-hosted Games, according to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
The 2020 collective bargaining agreement formalized a commitment by the NHL and the NHLPA to participate in both the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics. But that participation is “subject to negotiation of terms acceptable to each of the NHL, NHLPA, and IIHF (and/or IOC).” Despite that agreement, the NHL opted out again from the 2022 Games in Beijing, citing “a profound disruption to the regular-season schedule caused by recent COVID-related events.”
Walsh said his focus is on getting NHL players back into the Winter Olympics for the 2026 Milano Cortina Games in Italy.
“I’m working with commissioner Bettman, collectively together with the IIHF, and hopefully we’ll be able to come up with an agreement and move forward,” he said. “A lot of players from around the globe want to play for their home country. They want that best-on-best tournament. They want to be part of it.”
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN that “we are still working to facilitate participation in the 2026 Milan Olympics.”
Walsh said he’s still learning about the history and dynamics of the NHL and the NHLPA’s relationship with the IOC, and what it’ll take to play in Milano Cortina.
“We just want to work that out. They can play in the Olympics in 2026. That’s something that’s really important to a lot of players,” he said.
But the players are focused on more than just the Olympics when it comes to international hockey. Walsh said they’re also fixated on the next edition of the World Cup of Hockey, which was resurrected as an eight-team, NHL/NHLPA-backed tournament held in Toronto in 2016. Walsh said the important things for the players are format and regularity.
“We’ve had some conversations with the league about making sure that if we’re going to do a World Cup hockey tournament, it’s best-on-best and we do it for a period of a couple different tournaments, so that we’re not doing this one-off every 10 years. That we have more consistency moving forward. That still has a ways to go,” he said.
Bettman and Walsh met during the spring to discuss the next World Cup.
“I think we’re off to a great start. We both identify it as a priority,” said Bettman.
There were plans to hold the World Cup in February 2024. But the NHL and NHLPA said in a joint statement that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made “the current environment not feasible” to stage the event at that time. Daly said in 2022 that the NHL had heard from some participating countries that “would have objections to Russian participation in the World Cup.”
But he also said the NHL was committed to having its Russian stars participate in the World Cup: “We would certainly like to accommodate them in some credible way.”
Regarding current World Cup plans, Daly told ESPN that the NHL “still wants to create and stage an international competition in February of 2025.”
Walsh also said his players are interested in the NHL’s Global Series, which stages games in international cities. The Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings are playing exhibition games in Melbourne, Australia, this season, while the Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota Wild, Ottawa Senators, and Toronto Maple Leafs are playing regular-season games in Stockholm.
“We’ve had great meetings with the league on making sure that as we go to a location in the future, that we make sure [we use] that opportunity to grow the game in those places,” said Walsh.
He also wants the NHL to use international hockey events to reach new audiences. He told the Associated Press that he’s wondered about opportunities for hockey in Latin American countries and among underserved populations in North America.
“We have teams like the Dallas Stars and the Coyotes and even the Panthers to some degree: large Latino populations,” Walsh said. “You think of Boston – are we tapping into Latino population in Boston, New York, Chicago, places like that?”
More regular season games, more playoff teams?
When Marty Walsh was a young Boston Bruins fan, he watched a league where 12 of 17 teams qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The arrival of the Seattle Kraken pushed the current total of NHL teams to 32, with 16 teams making the playoffs each year.
The other major pro sports have all expanded their postseason fields in recent years, including the addition of play-in games for the NBA and Major League Baseball. Is there an appetite from NHL players to follow their lead?
“I have not had those conversations yet. I would talk to the players to see what they feel about it and then make a proposal or presentation to league,” he said. “But as a sports fan, I’ve certainly seen that happening. I’ve watched the play-in games in the NBA and the NFL add another team in there.”
Bettman has said there’s not been a push within the Board of Governors about expanding the playoff field. Nor has there been a push to extend the regular season from 82 to 84 games, although the NHL has discussed the possibility at the executive level.
Walsh said he’s yet to discuss that possibility with the players, who would undoubtably have to sign off on an increase in games played.
“Any conversations about rule changes, league changes or the game changes, those are things that I would have a long conversation with players about first,” said Walsh. “I’m certainly not in a position to recommend changes on how we do things in the National Hockey League without having support of the players I represent.”
Should Coyotes relocate?
One of the issues Walsh has taken a hard stance on during his brief time with the NHLPA concerns the Arizona Coyotes playing games at Mullett Arena in Tempe – an NCAA hockey rink that’s their temporary home until they can secure a site for a new arena.
Walsh said he’s met more with Arizona players than anyone else in the NHLPA. He’s called NHL players competed in a college “just not right” and “not good for the game.”
The Coyotes wanted to build a new arena in Tempe but lost a public referendum in April that killed that project. At the NHL Draft in June, Coyotes CEO Xavier Gutierrez said the team is looking at a half dozen potential arena sites in the East Valley to build “a privately funded sports and entertainment district.” Gutierrez has told NHL commissioner Gary Bettman that the Coyotes will avoid choosing a site that requires “a public referendum” after losing the Tempe vote in May.
Walsh said he and Bettman actually watched a Coyotes game at Mullett Arena together last season, talking about the Arizona franchise and other issues during the game. “We’ve had a very good open dialogue on a lot of different issues,” he said.
When the Tempe vote failed, Bettman and the NHL put out their most emphatic messaging about the Coyotes’ future. Bettman told Sportsnet in June that “by midseason, we should have a pretty good handle on what their situation is. If we need to explore further options at that time, we’ll consult with management and figure out what to do.”
Walsh said he needs to have “shovels in the ground” clarity on the Coyotes’ new arena as well.
If that doesn’t materialize by midseason, should the Coyotes relocate?
“I’ve been very clear. I said these players deserve to play in an NHL arena. The ownership of the Coyotes are working to try and find a location. And if we have ground broken in the near future really soon, then that means an arena’s coming. At that point, you can go to the players and say to them, ‘You’re going to be in this stadium for two or two and a half more years, but there’s a new arena being built on the street.’ That’s a whole different ball game from going into the season not having a location that changes those dynamics,” said Walsh, who said he wants clarity in the next several months about the Coyotes’ future.
“I don’t know what the rules and regulations are for ownership. But I want the players I represent to be playing in a National Hockey League arena,” he said.
Warm-Up jersey controversy
When Walsh landed with the NHLPA, he was immediately confronted by a controversial issue: The decision by several NHL players not to wear Pride Night jerseys during warmups.
“It was probably less than a percent of players that didn’t want to wear the [Pride] jerseys for whatever reason. Political reasons for players from different countries, religious religions,” said Walsh. “I don’t think anyone said, ‘I’m not wearing the jersey cause I don’t believe in gay rights.’ I think they’ve said [it’s because of] religious beliefs or political back home beliefs.”
Ivan Provorov, playing for the Philadelphia Flyers, was the first player to opt out of wearing a Pride jersey in January, citing his religious beliefs. He didn’t participate in warmups, but played in their game.
“The day before I got voted in by the [NHLPA] executive board [was when] the first player said they weren’t going to wear the jersey,” he said. “It just kind of caught me by surprise a little bit. I realized quickly that we have some education to do here.”
Walsh said that the “overwhelming majority” of players support the LGBTQ community. Walsh said he’s been “a huge supporter of the LGBTQ community” in his political career. He’s said for years that “the proudest vote I ever took as a state legislator was the vote I cast for marriage equality” in 2007.
In June, the NHL Board of Governors sought to avoid future controversies by no longer allowing teams to wear any specialty jerseys during warmups. The ban includes jerseys that teams have worn for Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Military Appreciation Night, Hockey Fights Cancer, as well as more localized celebrations like San Jose’s Hispanic Heritage Night.
For years, player-worn jerseys were often designed by artists from marginalized communities and would be auctioned off after games to benefit local and national charities — oftentimes generating thousands of dollars per jersey, depending on the player. Bettman emphasized that specialty nights will continue to be held and that teams can still create jerseys to be auctioned off.
In a recent interview with The Hockey News, Walsh said philanthropic work was one way players could help grow the NHL, such as “expanding our relationship with the American Cancer Society, and also the Canadian Cancer Society, as well as the V Foundation, other places that we can really think about.”
Was the decision to do away with specialty warmup jerseys damaging to those efforts?
“I think it’s an opportunity somewhere down the road to take a revisit, see where we are and how we move forward,” he said. “But those arenas are still going to have those nights. Those nights are still going to be celebrated. They’re still going to be raising money.”
Walsh said he doesn’t view the specialty jersey ban – taking away a player’s choice to wear a jersey supporting Pride, cancer research or Black History Month – as a win for a small number of players vs. the majority of his constituency.
“I think if it was a win for the minority, it would’ve been that we’re eliminating Pride Nights. And it wasn’t that. It was just the jersey and the teams and the arenas are still going to be celebrating Pride Nights,” said Walsh. “I just think maybe people got caught off guard a little bit. As we move forward, I think we have some work to do. We all have work to do.”
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Two nights before James Franklin’s final game at Penn State, an unranked Clarkson University men’s hockey team scored on the fourth-ranked Nittany Lions a minute after puck drop. Behind the net, students erupted into chants of “Fire Franklin” — and resumed the chant after every goal in a 6-4 Clarkson win.
On Saturday, during Penn State’s stunning 22-21 loss to Northwestern, the “Fire Franklin” chants echoed through Beaver Stadium — and never let up.
After a third straight loss, Franklin looked defeated. As if saying goodbye, he stood on the 10-yard line and hugged every remaining player on the field before heading through the south tunnel for the last time as head coach.
There, his wife and daughter waited. He sent them ahead — perhaps so they wouldn’t hear the vitriol that awaited him — as he passed fans lined up on either side of the underpass to the locker room.
“How it all turned so bad so fast,” one Penn State athletic department source said, “I don’t know.”
The Nittany Lions began the season ranked No. 2 in the AP Top 25. They poured millions into building a loaded roster and a seasoned coaching staff that Franklin called his best yet. While the other Big Ten powers were set to debut new quarterbacks, Penn State boasted a three-year starter in Drew Allar, who opened as one of the Heisman Trophy betting favorites.
Coming off a CFP semifinal appearance, Penn State seemed poised to chase its first national title in 39 years. Yet with those expectations came unprecedented pressure on the Nittany Lions, who under Franklin had repeatedly wilted in big games.
As one former Penn State staff member put it, “They were either gonna win it all — or they were gonna implode.”
Six games into Franklin’s 12th season, the Nittany Lions imploded.
They lost in double overtime at home to Oregon, which dropped Franklin to 4-21 at Penn State against AP top-10 opponents, including 1-18 in Big Ten games.
They fell at winless UCLA — a team that had already fired its coach and hadn’t led once all season. Then, they lost to an unranked Northwestern, making Penn State the first team since the 1978 FBS-FCS split to lose consecutive games as 20-point or more favorites.
“It’s 100 percent on me,” Franklin said afterward. “We got to get it fixed — and I will get it fixed.”
By then, Penn State was too broken.
On Sunday, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft fired Franklin. It was a difficult, emotional parting, as Kraft had a strong relationship with Franklin and respect for how he had built the program. Sources inside the program indicated culture wasn’t the problem — as evidenced by the decision of 10 star players to turn down the NFL draft and return for another season.
“This is not a three-game thing,” Kraft said Monday. “This is really diving into where we are as a program — what is the trajectory of this program?”
That drove Kraft to make the call despite Franklin’s $49 million buyout — the second largest in college football history behind Jimbo Fisher’s $76 million Texas A&M payout.
Franklin, who didn’t immediately respond to texts or calls from ESPN, won 149 games and reached double-digit wins six times in 11 seasons at Penn State, including the previous three.
Yet no matter what he or the program tried, the Nittany Lions couldn’t win in the games that mattered most. And after Penn State failed to beat Oregon, the bottom finally fell out — the school’s fan base and power brokers gave up on its coach ever getting the Nittany Lions over the top.
“I’m here to win a national championship,” Kraft said. “And I believe our fans deserve that.”
Interviews with program insiders detail how a season that began with such promise in Happy Valley spiraled out of control — and what comes next for Penn State.
THE NITTANY LIONS reeled off seven wins to begin last season, setting up a November top-five clash in State College against Ohio State.
Penn State jumped to an early 10-0 lead, but the Nittany Lions failed to score another touchdown. Twice, the Ohio State defense stoned Penn State inside the 5-yard line on the way to a 20-13 victory.
The Buckeyes went on to win the national championship.
Penn State’s brass had seen how Ohio State’s massive financial investment the previous offseason paid off in big moments, from the victory in State College to a dominant run through the playoff.
The Buckeyes sank $20 million into their roster. They kept key players from bolting early for the NFL and landed several star players in the transfer portal. They even hired away UCLA coach Chip Kelly to be offensive coordinator.
This offseason, the Nittany Lions emulated that blueprint.
They found the money to keep Allar and standout running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen on campus. They also hired away Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who had transformed the Buckeyes defense into the best in college football.
After a one-point loss to Ohio State in 2018, Franklin noted that Penn State had gone from a “good football team to a great football team.” But the Nittany Lions still weren’t on an elite level — like Ohio State.
“Right now, we’re comfortable being great,” he said then. “I’m going to make sure that everybody in our program, including myself, is very uncomfortable. … We are going to break through.”
This year, that breakthrough seemed possible.
As one Penn State source said, Kraft and the administration ensured that Franklin had “everything he needed to win a national championship and get rid of that stigma. … You want to keep those running backs? Let’s do it. We need a wide receiver? Let’s f—ing do it. Jim Knowles is out there? How much is it gonna cost? What do you need? Let’s go do it.”
Penn State sources noted that the program’s funding began matching that of Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia. Underscoring that, the Nittany Lions are in the middle of a $700 million renovation to Beaver Stadium, which is set to be completed by the 2027 season.
“There was a lot of momentum trending our way,” one university source said. “But the echo chamber of how good we were started to echo against itself. Like, we’re not just going to make the playoff, we’re going to win the national championship. It just got bigger and bigger, where the expectations were just massive.”
Instead of overwhelming the opposition, though, the Nittany Lions played tense. They struggled under the weight of those expectations, even during the first three wins over Nevada, Florida International and Villanova.
The vaunted running game sputtered, and the defense wasn’t suffocating the opposition as the players adjusted to Knowles’ system. Even then, alarm bells were going off inside the Lasch Football Building.
“The culture had gotten really tight,” one athletic department source said. “People around here were like, ‘We’re going to get f—ing crushed by Oregon.'”
One NFL personnel executive who had scouted those first three games wondered the same.
“They stunk,” he said. “It was like, what’s happening with them?”
Still, coming off a bye, the Nittany Lions had a prime opportunity to prove they were over their big-game flops of the past with the Ducks traveling in for a Sept. 27 prime-time showdown in front of a White Out Beaver Stadium crowd.
“This is going to be a statement game for our season,” Allen told ESPN the week before.
Instead, it was more of the same.
They didn’t get crushed, but struggled for long stretches. The offense under second-year coordinator Andy Kotelnicki never established the running game. Allar couldn’t find a rhythm. And while Oregon coach Dan Lanning aggressively went for it on fourth down five times alone in the first half, Franklin managed the game conservatively.
Facing fourth-and-9 from the Oregon 36-yard line, Franklin sent in the punt team. The ball landed in the end zone, resulting in a touchback. The Ducks capitalized, scoring their first touchdown, then another on their ensuing drive to take a 17-3 lead in the fourth quarter.
That’s when the first “Fire Franklin” chants began to reverberate around Beaver Stadium.
“When you’re more talented than the other team, that doesn’t hurt you,” said an NFL personnel executive, who’s scouted the Nittany Lions this season. “But in these close games where the talent [gap] gets a little bit smaller, it comes down to a few of those decisions that you make in terms of what position you put your team in … you could see Lanning stacking decisions and setting up different things they wanted to do throughout the game. The strategy was clear. … For all of James’ strengths, recruiting and leadership, his major weakness — in-game decision-making — showed up in every close game.”
Allar finally came alive in the fourth quarter and led the Nittany Lions on back-to-back touchdown drives to send the game to overtime. But then on Penn State’s first snap of the second overtime, he threw an interception, handing the Nittany Lions yet another loss in a top-10 matchup.
As fans emptied out of Beaver Stadium, many could be heard chanting “F— Drew Allar.”
In the 12-team playoff era, Penn State’s season technically wasn’t over with one loss. Under Franklin, the Nittany Lions had usually responded well after crushing big-game defeats. After the setback to Ohio State last year, Penn State responded by hammering Washington and Purdue by a combined score of 84-16. After losing to Michigan late in the 2023 season, the Nittany Lions finished off the regular season by dispatching Rutgers 27-6 and Michigan State 42-0.
But with so much riding on this season, the Oregon defeat was an emotional blow that sent the Nittany Lions to the mat.
They never got back up.
“It’s so hard mentally when you expect something big to happen,” a Power 4 assistant of Penn State said. “When that gets devastated so early, some dudes just don’t handle it very well.”
2:01
Stephen A.: Penn State was justified to fire James Franklin
Stephen A. Smith explains why Penn State made the right decision by firing James Franklin.
THE NITTANY LIONS traveled to Pasadena, California, hoping to get their season back on track against winless UCLA. The Bruins had recently fired coach DeShaun Foster and both coordinators after getting thumped by New Mexico 35-10.
But one source close to Penn State described the Nittany Lions as “emotionless” after Oregon.
“The team needed inspiration and confidence,” the source said. “But it was all hesitation.”
The Bruins were 24-point underdogs. They had scored just 57 points in their previous four games combined. But UCLA scored on its first five possessions to take a 27-7 lead into halftime.
“Wide receivers weren’t finishing routes, guys weren’t finishing blocks, the defensive line not being where they’re supposed to be — things that were always done at Penn State weren’t happening,” a program source said.
The Nittany Lions tried to fight back in the second half, but a curious fourth-and-2 call from the UCLA 9-yard line ended the rally. Kotelnicki dialed up an end-around zone-read, and the Bruins buried Allar behind the line of scrimmage.
That play call proved emblematic of Penn State’s offensive struggles under Kotelnicki, who had thrived with gimmicks at Kansas, but failed to fully embrace Penn State’s hard-nosed tradition or get the best out of Allar’s skill set.
“He tries to do a lot of stuff with movement and motions, but it just didn’t play well,” a coach who faced Penn State said. “With the running backs they have and the skill guys they brought in at receiver, you’d have thought they would have been able to get more production out of that group. … [In turn], Drew regressed.”
Afterward in the Rose Bowl tunnels, UCLA’s defensive linemen taunted Allar, saying “first round [quarterback], what?”
Franklin, partially blaming the cross-country travel for the way his team played, was asked if he still believed this was the best combination of coaching and talent he’d had at Penn State.
“How am I supposed to answer that,” he replied, shaking his head. “Obviously I felt that way or I wouldn’t have said it. But after two losses, it’s hard for me to answer that question and say that that’s the case.”
Allar was asked if the Nittany Lions still had a chance of making the playoff.
“What do you think?” he fired back. “Yes.”
One Penn State source called the lackluster performance “mind-blowing.” Another said the Lasch facility “felt like a morgue” leading into Northwestern.
Over the summer at Big Ten media days, Allar said it was time for Penn State “to get over that hump” in big games. Suddenly, the Nittany Lions couldn’t win the smaller ones, either.
The pressure had gotten to them.
“It wasn’t fair to the kids,” a source close to the program said. “It’s just not, because you’re not at your best when you’re worried about making a mistake, and you’ve got to be perfect. Then you lose the love of what you do, and you lose your confidence and you’re just a shell of yourself.”
That applied to Allar, whose production dipped.
Allar had strongly considered leaving for the NFL after last season. Multiple scouts said they believe Allar would’ve been a first-round pick last year and noted several teams had him in the second tier, behind No. 1 pick Cam Ward, with Jaxson Dart, who went 25th overall to the New York Giants.
“People were very excited about him,” one NFL personnel executive said of Allar.
But after throwing a costly interception in the CFP semifinal, setting up Notre Dame‘s game-winning field goal, Allar opted to come back.
This season, fair or not, Allar came to symbolize Penn State’s tentative, uncertain approach.
At 6-foot-5, 235 pounds, boasting a powerful arm, Allar often played — or had been instructed to play — like a quarterback with far fewer natural gifts, said one source close to the program.
“You could just tell he had a self-monologue of, ‘Don’t screw it up, don’t throw a pick,’ just not playing very confidently,” a coach who faced Penn State said. “They just feel like a team that doesn’t know who they are.”
When Allar arrived at Penn State, he showed promise of becoming the player who had eluded the Nittany Lions. From Sean Clifford to Christian Hackenberg, Penn State had signed prototypical quarterback prospects before. But none under Franklin had developed into a passer capable of leading the Nittany Lions to a national championship or turning into a first-round pick.
As a sophomore in 2023, Allar threw 25 touchdowns with just two interceptions. The following offseason, Franklin hired Kotelnicki to unlock Penn State’s downfield passing attack.
Last season, Allar ranked 16th nationally with a QBR of 77.5. He also averaged 8.44 yards per attempt.
But this year, Allar’s play declined. He ranks just 91st with 6.9 yards per passing attempt, only a notch above the 6.8 he averaged two years ago. Allar also has an off-target passing rate of 13.3% this season, 12th worst among Power 4 quarterbacks.
“His accuracy was off all year,” a defensive coordinator who faced Penn State said.
NFL sources added that they felt the Nittany Lions operated like they didn’t fully trust him.
“And they have more information than we do,” one NFL personnel executive said. “When they needed him to put it on his back, you just never saw that. … But the other side of the argument is, his career so eerily mirrored Hackenberg, you do wonder if there’s a quarterback development issue.”
As if it couldn’t get any worse for Allar, late in the fourth quarter against Northwestern, while trying to run for a first down, he suffered a season-ending left leg injury. Having played more than four games in each of the past four seasons, Allar has exhausted his eligibility.
On Monday, tears welled in Kraft’s eyes as he spoke of Allar.
“Anyone who ever doubts that young man’s commitment to Penn State and Penn State football, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Kraft said. “He’s one hell of a young man and he puts up with a lot of crap. … He wants to win in the worst way. To see it end that way, you never want that.”
DESPITE PENN STATE’S nightmare season, Kraft projected optimism about the program’s future.
“We have invested at the highest level,” he said. “Ultimately, I believe a new leader can help us win a national championship.”
Sources close to the program expect Kraft to swing for the fences in hiring a new coach. Possible candidates could include Indiana‘s Curt Cignetti, Iowa State‘s Matt Campbell, Texas A&M’s Mike Elko and Georgia Tech‘s Brent Key.
But all eyes will be on Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, who worked under Kraft at Temple. The two remain close.
Rhule won 10 games in 2015 and 2016 at Temple before taking the head job at Baylor.
In 2024, he led Nebraska to its first winning season in seven years; this fall, the Huskers are 5-1. Yet, those who have worked with Rhule in the past call Penn State “his dream job.”
This week, Rhule, a walk-on linebacker for the Nittany Lions under Joe Paterno in the 1990s, didn’t rule out a return to his alma mater.
“I love that place,” Rhule said. “I love Pat. I love James Franklin and am sad that came to an end. I wish him the absolute best. But I’m really happy here.”
Said a former Penn State staffer of Rhule: “They’re probably a perfect marriage. If you’re Pat, you hope Matt finishes really strong, and you can parade him in front of your donors. … [They have] to hire somebody who infuses confidence into the fan base.”
While Rhule enjoyed success at Temple and Baylor, taking the Bears to the Big 12 championship game in 2019, he too has struggled to win big games.
Over his stints at Temple, Baylor and Nebraska, Rhule is 0-11 against AP top-10 opponents and 2-23 against the Top 25. He had 18 upset wins and 13 upset losses during that time.
Only 53 years old, Franklin’s coaching career is likely far from finished.
On Sunday, he addressed the players in what sources characterized as an emotional meeting.
“The players really did love him,” one source said.
Penn State center and captain Nick Dawkins praised Franklin’s “contagious energy, fighter’s spirit, toughness and grit” on Tuesday.
“All the flak and criticism and boos and chants in the face of adversity, he remained a strong shoulder, remained stone cold for his players, for the university,” he said. “Standing tall for those that are standing with you.”
ESPN college football writers Paolo Uggetti and Max Olson contributed to this report.
Inspirational thought of the week:
“Are you surprised?”
“Surprised, Eddie? If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t be more surprised than I am right now.”
— Clark Griswold and Cousin Eddie, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”
Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, located behind the storage trailers that hold all of the makeup and rubber noses required to attempt to make Glen Powell look even remotely unattractive in “Chad Powers,” we, like Chad’s South Georgia Catfish teammates and coaching staff, sometimes struggle with recognizing who and what is actually standing before us. Then, when they reveal their true identities, which we’re assuming Chad will do at some point, we are left standing with our jaws on the floor and face in our hands like Hugh Freeze during another replay review.
See: Last week’s much-anticipated Pillow Fight of the Week of the Year Mega Bowl between what were then the Bottom 10 third-ranked UMess Minuetmen and the fourth-ranked State of Kent. And we weren’t alone in our anticipation of a close game. The wiseguys in the desert with their calculators next to the shrimp buffet had Kent as a 1.5-point favorite, and our ESPN Analytics team’s Ouija board Win Probability Index believed UMass had a 43.9% chance to emerge victorious.
Final score: Kent State 42, UMass 6.
See, Part 2: Penn State, which just three weekends ago came within a couple of knuckles of beating Oregon in overtime, was facing its second consecutive Bottom 10 contender, Northworstern, having lost to the then-ucLa Boo’ins the week before. And the Nittany Lions lost again, their third straight defeat, then fired James Franklin, who had coached them to within three points of playing for the national title just 10 months ago.
Let’s check on Penn State… pic.twitter.com/btJn0BbtgK
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) October 11, 2025
The point is that no one knows what the hell we are talking about. But talking about it is so much fun. Well, for us it is so much fun. In Amherst, Massachusetts, and State College, Pennsylvania, they are looking out the window at the silent majesty of a winter’s morn and a guy in his bathrobe, emptying a chemical toilet into their sewer.
With apologies to former North Texas tight end Robert Griswold, former Northwestern tight end Bob Griswold, Cousin Eddie George and Steve Harvey, here are the post-Week 7 Bottom 10 rankings.
The Minuetmen are currently ranked 130th in points against, 135th in rushing yards and 136th in points for. They are also ranked 111th in passing yards. Do you think those other units look at the passing guys and say, “Stop making the rest of us look bad”?
The Beavers traveled to North Carolina and lost to Appalachian State, then hosted and lost to another North Carolina team in Wake Forest, then fired head coach Trent Bray, who wasn’t even the biggest Coach Trent to lose his job this week …
The good news for the Bearkats is they kame the klosest to akkcomplishing viktory as they have all season before sukkumbing to Jacksonville State Not Jacksonville City 29-27. Up next on the kalendar is a Konference USA Pillow Fight of the Week. Against whom do they klash? Keep scrolling …
Yep, it’s the Minors, who will travel to Sam Houston State on Wednesday night. Hopefully someone reminds them that Sam Houston State isn’t actually in Houston; it’s an hour north in Huntsville. Hopefully someone reminds them that it’s not the Huntsville in Alabama, but the one in Texas, one town over from Arizona, which hopefully someone reminds them is the Arizona town in Texas, not the state of Arizona.
Sources tell Bottom 10 JortsCenter that when James Franklin drove home from the office with his box of stuff, he was greeted in the driveway by Charlie Weis and Bobby Bonilla, who gave him a signed copy of “How To Make a Mattress From Your Pile of Money” by Scrooge McDuck.
The Woof Pack started the year with a loss to Penn State back when Happy Valley was still happy, and followed that with a win over Sacramento State. The rest of the year has been like another former Reno-based late-night show, HBO’s “Cathouse.” And just like that brothel reality program, we never admit that we’ve watched, but secretly we can’t look away.
If you were wondering when MTSU and Novada might play in their own version of the Pillow Fight of the Week, we have bad news. It already happened. The Blew Raiders scored two TDs in the final six minutes to win 14-13 back in Week 3.
When Trent Dilfer was fired by UAB, he went down to the locker room to tear a bunch of stuff up, but after 2½ seasons of him exploding like the red Anger guy from “Inside Out,” there was nothing left to break.
The Pillow Fight of the Week, Y’all Edition, is the college football equivalent of that pointing Spider-Man meme, as Georgia State Not Southern travels to Georgia Southern Not State, which is 2-4. The winner retains exclusive rights to “GSU” for the next year. The loser has to change all its logos to “GUS.”
For those of you — and we are talking to ourselves here — who are still bummed about the lack of substance in the UMass-Kent State game, picture in your mind Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda sitting on a Dagobah log as Luke Skywalker flies away to get his butt whipped by Darth Vader. “That boy was our last hope.” “No … there is another.” These Other Huskies travel to UMass on Nov. 12 … and host Kent State over Thanksgiving weekend. Also, how great would it be to see Obi-Wan and Yoda wearing #MACtion gear? Speaking of the Midwest, I’ve heard from a lot of Wisconsin fans that the Bad-gers should be in this spot. Yeah, I’ve seen your schedule. You’ll be here soon enough. To quote Luke’s dad — Skywalker, not Fickell — it is your destiny.
Waiting list: State of Kent, EMU Emus, South Alabama Redundancies, Oklahoma State No Pokes, Charlotte 1-and-5ers, Wisconsin Bad-gers, Bah-stan Cawledge, UNC Chapel Bill, clapping with fingers.
Anthony Volpe recently had surgery to repair a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder, according to multiple reports, jeopardizing his availability for the start of the 2026 season and further complicating the New York Yankees‘ plan at shortstop.
Volpe underwent the surgery Tuesday — less than a week after the end of his disappointing 2025 season — and was operated on by Yankees team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad, according to reports.
The New York Post first reported Volpe’s surgery Wednesday. The Yankees are expected to officially confirm the reports when general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone hold their end-of-season news conference Thursday.
Volpe initially injured his shoulder in early May and was hampered by the injury throughout the season.
The former top prospect had two cortisone shots — one in July, and another in September — but Cashman indicated last month that the Yankees thought Volpe might avoid surgery.
Recovery timelines for labrum operations often vary, but the minimum time required to heal from the surgery is typically four months. Cashman and Boone are expected to discuss Volpe’s situation Thursday, but a lengthy recovery likely will force the Yankees to search for alternatives at shortstop.
Volpe’s future with the Yankees already was uncertain after he struggled throughout the season. The 2023 Gold Glove winner committed 19 errors — tied for the third most in the majors — and batted just .212 with a .663 OPS. He went 5-for-26 in New York’s seven postseason games, striking out 16 times.
Jose Caballero filled in for Volpe at shortstop over the final two months of the season, and the Yankees also could use Oswaldo Cabrera at the position.
Shortstop George Lombard Jr. is New York’s top minor league prospect, but the 20-year-old batted just .215 in 108 games at Double-A Somerset this season and is considered a long shot to make the Yankees’ Opening Day roster in 2026.
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