The question I keep asking myself in the wake of the Penn State-Maryland game is this: How much is enough?

How many points are enough to satisfy the College Football Playoff committee? How many reps do backups need? And how much revenge is necessary (if in fact that was in play, as some have speculated)?

As we all know by now, Nittany Lions coach James Franklin had his backup quarterback, Beau Pribula, attempt a pass on the final play Saturday, and it went for a 15-yard touchdown, finishing off a 44-7 PSU victory. Terps coach Mike Locksley called that “bullshit” in his postgame remarks to reporters, while Franklin trotted out all manner of justifications.

Told reporters that his third- and fourth-stringers needed the work. That the CFP system incentivizes running up the score. And that if the Terps didn’t want the Nits to throw, they shouldn’t have been playing Cover Zero, a defensive scheme featuring no deep safeties.

There were also those who wondered if Franklin had in the back of his mind the 2014 game, when Maryland’s captains refused to shake hands with their PSU counterparts before a 20-19 Terps victory. Or the teams’ 2020 meeting, a 35-19 Maryland victory that saw the Terps circulate an Internet meme saying, “You WERE. We Are,” a takeoff on Penn State’s long-time battle cry. 

(Or, if you want to go way back, there’s speculation about whether Franklin continues to harbor ill will toward Maryland, where he was once an assistant under Ralph Friedgen and deemed the head coach-in-waiting.)

Whatever the case, Franklin was unrepentant about his handling of Saturday’s endgame.

“I’m good with it,” he said. “Anybody that’s not, that’s their problem.”

No doubt he was feeling pretty chesty, considering his team, now 11-1, is headed to the Big Ten championship game, where it will face top-ranked Oregon on Saturday in Indianapolis. Then again, he usually does come off that way, except for when Ohio State shows up on the schedule.

Back to the original point, though: How much is enough?

And the answer seems to be, just a little bit more. That’s the world in which we live nowadays. It’s always about more, more, more, always about I got mine, and hell with you.

Doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I mean, I’m old, edging ever closer to 70. Apparently old-fashioned, too. But maybe (and hear me out here) this isn’t always the best approach. Maybe there ought to be some room for – dare it be said? – sportsmanship.

Or is that no longer in fashion?

Regarding Franklin’s point about the third- and fourth-stringers: That’s true to some degree, but Pribula is actually a second-stringer, and is often on the field with the starters as a gadget guy. Why was he even in the game at the end?

And really, would that one play make that much difference in the backups’ development?

And the point about Cover Zero is just laughable. Maryland, hopelessly outgunned after turning an early Penn State fumble into a short-lived 7-0 lead, could have played Cover 11 (if such a thing existed) and it wouldn’t have mattered.

The point about the CFP does hold some validity, but only some. The committee would have somehow been less impressed with a 38-7 victory than a 44-7 victory? Really? That’s a tough sell for me. 

Penn State’s good, no question. The Lions have benefitted from a soft schedule to get where they are, but they’re damn good. Tyler Warren is one of the finest players in the country, and they have a bunch of other guys – Drew Allar, Abdul Carter, Nick Singleton, et al. – destined to play on Sunday.

Saturday’s endgame was a mere smudge on a sparkling season, certain to be wiped away by whatever comes next (or by the next silly brawl, somewhere on the college football landscape). And if somebody does to the Lions what they did to Maryland in the closing seconds, so be it.

It’s just the way things are in this day and age. No reason to get too worked up about it, I guess.