The Penn State Nittany Lions said that enough was enough.

According to a report from ESPN's Pete Thamel, head coach James Franklin was officially fired on Sunday afternoon following the Nittany Lions' third consecutive loss of the year, and their second as a double-digit favorite. Franklin, who had coached at Penn State for 12 years and had a 104-45 record in Happy Valley, will be owed upwards of $48 million in a buyout from the University.

After making it to the semi-final of the College Football Playoff a year ago, Penn State was expected to be one of the best teams in the nation this year, returning star players like QB Drew Allar, RBs Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton, and DE Dani Dennis-Sutton. They were ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation according to most preseason polls, but their loss to the Oregon Ducks in Week 5 of the season started a snowball effect that Franklin got caught in.

In Week 6, Penn State lost to the winless UCLA Bruins on the road in the Rose Bowl, and then the Nittany Lions were upset by the Northwestern Wildcats at home in Week 7.

Those two losses made it the first time in 30 years that a team has lost consecutive games as 20-plus point favorites. That seemingly was the nail in the coffin for Franklin.

Going forward, it will be very interesting to see where Penn State goes from here. They are one of the predominant teams and brands in all of college football, and will be a coveted job on the open market going forward. Initial calls will likely go out to Indiana's Curt Cignetti and Nebraska's Matt Rhule, but this will be a fascinating coaching search to watch.

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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: BREAKING: Penn State fires head coach James Franklin, per report

Reporting by Zachary Neel, College Sports Wire / College Sports Wire

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