Listen up, Baylor: Penn State's James Franklin explains the adversity still to come

The Nittany Lions' coach is still trying to dig Penn State out of NCAA sanctions, and if you ask him, Baylor's got its own long road ahead

CHICAGO -- Get ready for a change, Baylor -- a big change.

The scandal-ridden Bears probably know that by now. But Penn State coach James Franklin articulated it from experience on Monday at the 2016 Big Ten Media Days.

Franklin is beginning his third season since taking over a Penn State program involved in its own scandal. His team is an upturn digging out from the much-criticized penalties applied by the NCAA in 2012 in the wake of Jerry Sandusky's criminal acts.

Baylor is at the beginning stages with the fallout of its sexual assault scandal.

"The Baylor that they have known for the last 50 years or even the Baylor they have known for the last 10 years, that Baylor is going to be different and is never going to be the same again," Franklin said. "There's going to be policies, there are going to be procedures. There's going to be people in place for everything."

By January 2015, the NCAA restored the Penn State scholarships and Joe Paterno wins it took away in its historic and misguided penalties that were applied in July 2012.

But Franklin is still digging out. New issues arose this summer when court documents seemed to indicate Paterno knew about Sandusky's acts going back to at least the mid-1970s.

Franklin said he has tired of "answering questions about things that happened 40 years ago when I was four years old."

There continue to be roster and depth issues at Penn State, which is still under the NCAA's 85-scholarship maximum. Franklin continues to complain about in negative recruiting.

Franklin is coming off consecutive 7-6 seasons since replacing Bill O'Brien. He is still trying to restore one of the greatest programs in the sport's history.

Baylor has won at least 10 games four times since 2011, including at least a share of two Big 12 titles. In that time span, Baylor has been a national program for the only time in its history.

"You need to understand, I'm not saying you can't achieve the same type of success on and off the field, but it's going to be different," Franklin said of Baylor. "You can compare as much as you possibly can, you're never really going to understand that. [The scrutiny is] going to be unique, and it's going to be as sophisticated as any program in the country.

"[Recruits] are only really aware of the last five years anyway. Baylor has kind of been in front of them, been successful for a brief time here. I think everybody knows Penn State is a storied program with great history and tradition."

All we know for sure at this point about Baylor is that two recruiting classes have been impacted. Half of the 2016 class is gone essentially because of the scandal. Baylor has only two commitments thus far for 2017.

Acting Bears coach Jim Grobe said last week he will lean heavily on the approximately 30 walk-ons in the program at the moment.

"The biggest challenge is how you handle adversity," Franklin added. "You can take lessons from other situations but not like it's a blueprint of what you have to do and how and why. These are situations that are unique."