DANIA BEACH, Fla. -- With Marcus Freeman seated maybe 24 inches to his right and a cup of coffee at his left hand, James Franklin dove in.
Penn State's 11th-year head coach knocked the continued independence of Freeman's Notre Dame Fighting Irish, lamented that not all teams had traveled the same path throughout this college football season and into the semifinals of the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff; jabbed and praised the SEC for its eight-game conference schedule.
On the day that Elvis Presley would have turned 90 years old, Franklin sure sounded like he had been left at the Heartbreak Hotel.
Franklin and Freeman spoke in the head coaches' joint press conference ahead of Thursday night's Orange Bowl.
"I think there's been conversations about -- obviously you talk about just the differences between our two programs and conferences," said Franklin, as he answered a question about managing the length of this season. "I think it should be consistent across college football.
"I think, again, this is no knock on Coach or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game or no one should play a conference championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games."
The Big Ten plays nine conference games; ditto the Big 12 while the ACC and SEC play just eight times against conference foes.
"As a head coach in the SEC," Franklin said, in reference to his time at Vanderbilt that preceded his 2014 arrival to Penn State, "I've been a head coach in the Big Ten, I was in the SEC when the whole conversation was whether to go to eight or nine conference games. We voted -- all the coaches voted against going the nine games. The commissioner agreed and kept it at eight. I think it was one of the better decisions the SEC made.
"The Big Ten went to nine games, and I was not a math major at East Stroudsburg, but just the numbers are going to make things more challenging if you're playing one more conference game."
Franklin had made similar comments about Notre Dame's football isolation exactly one month ago when the CFP Committee unveiled the first-ever 12-team field.
As he shared that Nick Saban had called him to complain about Franklin having lobbied for Saban to the first-ever college football commissioner, he also floated changing the calendar in the sport.
"I just think things need to be consistent across college football," Franklin said. "I think we need to look at the calendar; should we open up a week earlier in the season to take some of the pressures off the end of the season. I think there's just a ton of things that need to be discussed and looked at, and I think we need to do it with people that do not feel the pressure from their university or their conference."
Freeman said that while Notre Dame leans into its treasured independence, the program also stands ready to adapt. Competing, Freeman indicated, is all that matters.
"You know, Coach Franklin has a lot more experience, one, being a head coach in college football, and even just being in college athletics where you can formulate a strong opinion," said Freeman, now 18-2 in his last 20 games atop the Irish. "For us, whatever you're going to tell us, we'll make the most of. We pride ourselves on our independence. If they come out with a decision we can't be independent, then we'll make it work.
"I don't have a whole bunch of opinion on it. I'm a guy that just, tell us what we're doing and let's go and move forward and let's make the most of it. Not the answer you're probably looking for, but I'm not strongly opinionated about it.
"I love where we're at right now, and Pete Bevacqua and our Notre Dame administration will continue to make decisions that's best for our program."
As he wrapped up his comments on the subject, Franklin then said that more uniformity in college football also could help the sport's CFP Selection Committee.
"I just try -- most things in life I try to look at things from both perspectives," Franklin, in his first-ever CFP, said. "I just try to sit here and say, if I was in that room and I'm getting criticized about who makes the playoff, whether it was four or now 12, and everybody has got an opinion, I just think, how do you put those people that are in that room to make a really important decision that impacts the landscape of college football and they can't compare apples to apples or oranges to oranges.
"I think that makes it very, very difficult. Strength of schedule plays a factor, and obviously Notre Dame plays a great schedule every year and have forever. I get the understanding and the impact of independence on their program.
"I'm just talking about it more strictly from the College Football Playoff committee sitting in that room trying to make decisions. How do you make decisions when every conference is different, schools are different. I think it puts them in a very, very difficult position, and I'm just really speaking on it more from that path."
OF course, little about college football beyond the 85-scholarship roster -- due for likely expansion later this year up to 105 -- is uniform.
Penn State, for example, played seven regular-season home games; Notre Dame hosted just six, the second-straight season that the Irish had to travel for half of their in-season games.
Moreover, Ohio State -- which faces Texas in the Cotton Bowl Friday in the other semifinal contest -- hosted eight home games this season.
And, the Buckeyes and Longhorns are widely viewed to have two of college football's most well-compensated rosters through Name, Image and Likeness deals; there's no salary cap, or really even any guidelines at present in the sport for paying players.
In other words, a sport often embraced for its warts has more than just conference affiliation on the horizon.