DANIA BEACH, Fla. – While talking about the opportunity that awaits Penn State in the College Football Playoff, coach James Franklin said Wednesday that the showdown against Notre Dame is about “representing our schools and our conferences.”

Franklin then caught himself when he realized Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman was sitting to his right.

“Or our conference, excuse me,” Franklin said.

Penn State will represent the Big Ten in the College Football Playoff semifinals in the Capital One Orange Bowl against FBS independent Notre Dame on Thursday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Hard Rock Stadium.

The Nittany Lions reached the Big Ten Championship Game before securing sixth place in the first 12-team CFP, while the Fighting Irish made the playoffs overall and secured seventh place despite playing in one fewer game.

Franklin said he believes a larger CFP ultimately requires more uniformity in college football, including all teams participating in a conference and playing in the same number of league games. Notre Dame, one of the three remaining independent FBS organizations, views its status as central to the school’s identity and has resisted the chance to join the Big Ten and other conferences over the years. The Fighting Irish compete in the ACC for most of their other major sports, and in football they have a schedule with the ACC.

“It should be consistent across all of college football,” Franklin said. “That’s not a knock on (Freeman) or Notre Dame, but I think everyone should be in a conference. I think everyone should play a conference championship game or nobody should play a conference championship game. I think everyone should play the same number of conference games.”

Penn State reached the CFP through nine conference games and the Big Ten championship game against No. 1 Oregon, which defeated the Nittany Lions 45-37 on Dec. 7. The Big 12 has also maintained a nine-game league schedule. while the SEC and ACC remained at eight conference games.

Franklin, who coached at Vanderbilt before Penn State, praised the SEC for sticking with eight league games, which is what the league’s coaches wanted. The SEC has repeatedly considered playing nine league games during Franklin’s time in the Big Ten.

“I wasn’t a math major at East Stroudsburg, but the numbers alone make things more difficult when you’re playing another conference game,” he said.

Franklin also highlighted other areas of the sport that could be made more consistent, including starting the season a week earlier to ease the burden of more games with expanded playoffs. He reiterated his desire to appoint a college football commissioner not affiliated with a school or conference and again mentioned longtime coach and current ESPN analyst Nick Saban as an option, along with the former Washington and Boise State coach , Chris Petersen, now a Fox college football analyst, and Dave Clawson, who recently resigned as Wake Forest’s coach.

“We need someone to look at this from a big-picture perspective,” Franklin said.

Freeman acknowledged that Notre Dame prides itself on its independence. He said the team is using the conference championship weekend, which is guaranteed not to be played, as another open week for recovery and other priorities.

Notre Dame ended the regular season on November 30 and did not play again until December 20, when it hosted Indiana in a CFP first-round game. Former Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick helped devise the format for the 12-team CFP and agreed that if selected, the Irish would not be eligible for a bye to the quarterfinals.

Freeman noted that he doesn’t have a clear opinion on whether college football needs more uniformity.

“I’m a guy that just thinks, ‘Tell us what we’re doing and then we’ll move on and you’ll move forward,'” Freeman said. “I think it’s great where we are right now. (Athletic director) Pete Bevacqua and our Notre Dame administration will continue to make decisions that are best for our program.”

Franklin said his desire for greater consistency stems from the CFP selection process and the difficulty committee members have in sorting through teams with very different paths and profiles and determining strength of schedule and other factors.

“How do you get the people in this 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?” Franklin said. “I think that makes it very, very difficult.”