UPDATE: Negative recruiting? James Franklin and Sandy Barbour need to keep heads down to fight it

CHICAGO -- Around and around we go.

Penn State head coach James Franklin responded to Tuesday morning's negative recruiting storyline in an interview with FOX Sports after Michigan State's Mark Datonio, Ohio State's Urban Meyer, and PSU AD Sandy Barbour all addressed claims of those programs, and others, allegedly negatively recruiting against Penn State.

Talking to the outlet's Bruce Feldman, Franklin denied that he ever said, or even insinuated, that those schools used the Sandusky scandal, or spewed falsehoods on the recruiting trail, as Barbour alleged.

"All I said was that every kid that we're recruiting is also being recruited by Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Notre Dame and that they don't have the same challenges that we have now," Franklin told Feldman. "Then, in a separate quote, I mentioned that right now we're (dealing) with negative recruiting. It was two separate quotes, though, over a 35-minute interview."

"I never said that any of those schools are the ones doing the negative recruiting against us. They're not. There is one other particular school, but I didn't name who that was."

Here's the quote that prompted Tuesday's events, on a day that was scheduled to be a fairly quiet one for Franklin and his program:

"When I say our past, I don't mean we just move on,"

in June. "We have to learn and grow from those experiences. We have to have things in place to make sure we don't have any issues moving forward.

"I think one of the things that's a challenge is as Penn Staters, we're so proud and we know what we're all about and who we are. The people we're competing with - Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame - this is just not something they have to deal with. Although we want to move on, those other schools are not letting us move on."

Barbour did not implicate Big Ten schools or anyone else specifically on Tuesday, saying that negative recruiting is:

"[S]omething that has been going on around our sanctions, around our relationship with the NCAA, but frankly, of late, it's been taken to a new level, which has given some of the new Sandusky news, which frankly is not new, but what's being used has given the new Sandusky news; 'Penn State is going to get on probation again.' That's flat out untrue," Barbour said.

"The NCAA is very pleased with how we've handled. Both the Big ten and the NCAA consider the matter closed."

So, to recap:

Franklin has now said the quotes above were taken out of context.

Barbour

Meyer and Dantonio both denied it has occurred.

Negative recruiting happens everywhere, something all parties agree to. The consternation seems to stem from Penn State discovering that other programs are using falsehoods about future sanctions to turn recruits away from the Lions.

The saga is likely to drag on into Tuesday afternoon, when Dantonio and Meyer both speak again to reporters.