The 18-team Big Ten gets the SZD preseason preview treatment. What are reasonable expectations for last year’s title game teams, Michigan and Washington? (5:59) Is there any way things could go very badly for Ohio State and Oregon? (21:24) Will Penn State figure out a way to move the ball through the air? (34:54) Do we see a dark horse between the …

Doomberg runs the biggest financial newsletter on Substack, explaining money and markets to a quarter-million subscribers every week. Alex Kirshner, a skeptic of private equity money in college sports, asks Doomberg a bunch of questions about why institutional money is poised to come to college football, what it will mean, and who it will benefit. …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Godfrey opens the notebook for an all-coaching carousel mailbag to set the agenda for 2024. Two Mountain West jobs are already open, and there's a healthy retirement watch list before we even get to the Hot Seat Proper. Let's figure out who's gettin' that sweet buyou…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com There’s always lots happening in college football in South Florida. Richard interviews a pair of experts on the state of the FBS teams in the region: Kevin Fielder of Rivals breaks down FAU and FIU, who are perpetually jockeying for South Florida G5 supremacy. And th…

Oil and water. The Capulets and the Montagues. Michigan fans and Steven Godfrey. After years of often contentious relations, Godfrey threw down the gauntlet for Michigan fans to donate a bunch of money to charity, and they smashed giving goals like always. So here it is: Godfrey—egged on by Michigan diehard and New York Times writer Jane Coaston—ac…

The 2024 SEC season preview from Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson, and Steven Godfrey. How could the party be ruined for Georgia, Texas, and Alabama? Is Ole Miss or Mizzou better set up for a dream season? Which first-year starting QB at Tennessee, LSU, and Oklahoma is best set up for a breakout? Do Mark Stoops, Billy Napier, or Shane Beamer have any…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com After a long week of playing the EA Sports College Football 25 video game, our verdict is in. Alex and Richard review the game, discuss whe…By Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner

It’s the 2024 Big 12 season preview from Richard Johnson, Alex Kirshner, and Steven Godfrey. Utah enters the league as the favorite, but the gap to Kansas State and Oklahoma State looks small (5:03). It’s been a long time since any of Iowa State, Arizona, Kansas, or West Virginia won a conference, but they all have riser (and some decline) potentia…

Ben Haumiller is EA Sports’ principal game designer for college football. He’s here with Godfrey to discuss the long road back for a previously defunct CFB gaming franchise, and to answer questions from Godfrey and our subscribers about how College Football 25 will play and feel. Plus, Godfrey has details on his involvement with the game. Productio…

It’s the 2024 ACC season preview from Richard Johnson, Alex Kirshner, and Steven Godfrey. Following a discussion of the start of TALKIN’ SEASON (0:43), the group starts the ACC rundown with FSU and Clemson (20:06) and then goes through the entire Atlantic (and now, uh, Pacific) Coast Conference. How big a step back is reasonable at FSU? Does Dabo S…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com The Tampa Bay Times' Matt Baker joins Richard to talk all things Florida, Florida State, UCF, and USF ahead of the 2024 season. Now that the Bulls have been left behind in realignment, what’s next? The offense is gonna be good, but you'll never guess who their DC is.…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com It’s a big year for Ryan Day. He might have the preseason No. 1 team, and the pressure couldn’t be higher given three straight losses to Michigan, the Wolverines’ potential step-back year, and a 12-team Playoff format that all but ensures Ohio State will compete for …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com In this solo show, Steven Godfrey’s got two hours’ worth of football and life to keep you occupied as you sojourn in this hot valley of news for college football. Let’s talk about Lane Kiffin’s altar-dodging with Auburn, Marshall’s ceiling in the Sun Belt, Jimbo Fish…

Alex and Richard take subscriber questions heading into a holiday week. Which Florida school does Billy Napier least want to let beat him? Did UCLA set up DeShaun Foster to fail? Who can be 2024’s quiet “hang in the Playoff race right to the end” decent team? Is the Big 12 really due for an era of parity, or are media making that up? Who will suffe…

Weeks before the Big 12 expands to 16 teams, Godfrey and Alex dive into the unique place the conference currently occupies. It’s not rich like the Big Ten and SEC, but it’s not teetering like the ACC or dead like the old Pac-12. Things are more precarious than they were four years ago but way better than they were three years ago. Commissioner Bret…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com A college football playoff with more than four teams? What will they think of next? Alex, Richard, and Steven talk through what we can learn about the upcoming Playoff expansion by looking back at decades of the FCS (and Division II and III) postseason. What really d…

The rumor mill demands that several coaches be on the hot seat at all times. But what about when the seat gets so hot that a new description—”pre-fired”—becomes appropriate? With Billy Napier and Sam Pittman headlining the 2024 class of pre-firing candidates, Richard, Steven, and Alex go down memory lane. Sometimes a pre-fired coach goes the way of…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Shehan Jeyarajah is national reporter for CBS Sports, host of the College Football Survivor Show, and knower of the Texas college football scene. He chats with Alex about every FBS program in the state and a big handful of FCS teams, too. The conversation covers ever…

Richard Johnson, Alex Kirshner, and Steven Godfrey start to look ahead to the 2024 college football season. The episode opens with some consideration of New York Knicks fans (it just happened) and then moves (15:45) into a discussion of nine players we’re paying close attention to for 2024. Some are just really good, and some are pivotal to program…

Welcome to a new episode of Scheme School. Yahoo Sports’ Nate Tice returns to the show to have a completely on-field-focused (we promise) conversation about Colorado's already-polarizing QB1. What does he struggle with? And what does he excel at? What was the Buffs’ offense last year, what will it be this year, and what should it be to maximize San…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com College football is about to get a lot different. Alex and Richard talk through how changes to player compensation come 2025 will reshape the sport. We think it’s ultimately a winner for both players and fans, but there are big questions left to answer: What will bec…

Godfrey's insisting that everyone pick a Sun Belt team to ride and/or die with in '24. Plus, did the NFL kill USC's L.A. vibes? And let's set an expectation for every single FBS team changing conferences this season. The Big 12 is a Las Vegas buffet, and it's 3 a.m., baby. Production by Anthony Vito. Throughout May, The Single Wing is free for ever…

For more episodes like The Single Wing, subscribe at splitzoneduo.com. Godfrey's circling back on TV scheduling tactics for Week 1, explaining San Jose State’s triple-free offense, answering a desperately sad question about Group of 5 feeder programs, waxing emotional about EA NCAA, and teaching you why stupid ass-ideas like the G5 playoff get floa…

College football (including its TV partners) usually gets out of the NFL’s way. But when the 12-team Playoff arrives this December, the two levels of the sport will be head-to-head in a way they almost never are, especially since college’s powers that be made a tactical retreat from Thursday night. Is it surprising that the Playoff and ESPN would c…

In this solo show, Steven Godfrey's trying to figure out why Clemson's O-line can't match its D-line, why BYU was (is?) dirty, if Army/Navy has a Rose Bowl mentality, and how NFL markets affect local college teams. Production: Anthony Vito. Magic Mind: https://magicmind.com/splitzone20 This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with ot…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com As a postscript to last week’s newsletter about college football coaches’ golf handicaps, Alex and Richard discuss several football-adjacent golf topics. Has golf supplanted college football as the sport that’s most being harmed by its executive leadership? Is Hugh F…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Ohio State played host to one of the most bizarre commencement speeches of all time this month, when alumnus Chris Pan pitched graduates on Bitcoin and attempted to lead the Buckeye crowd in multiple singalongs. D.J. Byrnes writes The Rooster, a newsetter covering Oh…

Welcome to a FREE episode of The Single Wing thanks to our friends at Magic Mind (https://magicmind.com/SPLITZONE20 for 20 percent off). May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so let's talk about anxiety, parenting, and the Jimmy Sexton era of agenting. Plus: UCLA, Kent State, Wyoming, and Pearl Jam. Production: Anthony Vito. This is a public episod…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com It was huge college sports news in 2023 when dozens of athletes at Iowa and Iowa State became the targets of a state investigation into underage sports betting and wagers originating from the two campuses. It was less big news when enormous problems with that investi…

The end of the spring transfer portal window means the beginning of looking ahead in earnest to the 2024 season. With rosters mostly locked, Alex and Richard share the teams they’re optimistic, pessimistic, and in between about at the halfway point of the offseason. Richard thinks Ohio State will win the national championship, and Alex thinks Clems…

The Split Zone Duo crew discusses the results of the NFL Draft through both a college football and “being mean to Steven Godfrey” lens. Georgia’s player development, Washington’s offensive line, Oregon’s way of helping Bo Nix, whether Nick Saban actually admitted to a tampering violation on live TV, and much more. But yes, it all leads to a therapy…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Maryland is hiring Brian Ferentz as an analyst, per Bruce Feldman. Alex went to Maryland, so Richard forced him to record an emergency show about the whole thing. We start with Alex fearing the worst, then discuss how Mike Locksley is building a Saban school, why thi…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com A coaching search where nobody got spurned, everyone got paid, and all parties wound up exactly where they wanted to be all along? How nice. That’s the semi-official account—from ESPN and many of the people most closely involved—of what happened at Alabama. Alex, Ric…

It’s time for an offseason check-in with the most watched, most controversial 4-8 team in college football history. Richard, Godfrey, and Alex weigh in on the four different conversations that happen at any given second about Deion Sanders and Colorado: the one about the actual football team (5:30), the one about Deion as a leader of men (21:54), t…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com We get a lot of questions about how we keep up with the wide world of college football to bring you this podcast. How do we try to figure out where the interesting stories are? How do we keep eyeballs on a sport with so many teams at so many different levels? In the …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com For SZD’s annual NFL Draft QB special, Richard is joined by Ben Solak of The Ringer and Derrik Klassen of Bleacher Report. We start with the compulsory review of the greatest QB prospect of this century (Jacksonville Jaguar Trevor Lawrence) and review last year’s col…

USC reporter Luca Evans of the Orange County Register joins Alex to talk about the many challenges facing the Trojans in the NIL and collective space (4:19). How does a rich school with a blue-blood football history run into difficulty in this new world? USC is the best window into that question. Then Richard and Alex talk about the unusual buildup…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Welcome to The Single Wing, where Steven Godfrey takes subscriber questions on a wide range of college football topics. This week, Godfrey's officially issuing a Gangster AD badge (Go Vawls), and we're also discussing the come-up at Virginia Tech, the veteran plains-…

Richard has a conversation with Eric Galko, the director of football operations and player personnel for the East-West Shrine Bowl. It’s wide-ranging: Eric shares his 2024 NFL Draft hot takes and QB rankings, then talks about how the NFL views college players—and how well their programs are developing them. Eric tells us whether NIL actually ruined…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com In 2023, Neal Brown was the industry's most fireable head coach. Then he had a good enough year to get a small contract extension. Who is 2024’s most fireable coach? Well, there are a few contenders. Godfrey, Richard, and Alex take the temperature on a handful of coa…

Week 1 has always had tons of warmup games, but the schedule usually has a big handful of bangers. In 2024, that’s not the case. There are barely any games pitting Power 4 teams against each other and as a trickle-down, not many all-Group of 5 matchups of note either. Yes, there are a few blockbusters (LSU-USC, Georgia-Clemson), but look beyond tha…

Richard has ideas for how to make college football’s on-field rules a little bit better. Alex and Godfrey like some of them and don’t like others. Let’s discuss the optimal width for the hashmarks, whether it’s time to shift the rules around RPOs and linemen downfield, the NFL’s new take on the kickoff, and then some more chaotic ideas that we’ve b…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Godfrey's answering your questions about Lane Kiffin's short- and long-term plans now that Bama has hired a Nick Saban replacement who isn't him. Let's also discuss the vital signs of Year Zero as a concept, plus Florida's DEI mess and any effect recruiting, Mel Tuck…

Spring practice is a lot of hype and not a lot of substance, but sometimes we can learn a lot. Alex, Richard, and Godfrey talk about what to pay serious attention to right now and the five most interesting teams of spring 2024: Alabama, Michigan, Army, Ohio State, and Texas A&M. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other sub…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Godfrey's answering your questions about SEC Network bias (lol), the Big 12's inadvertent but noticeable "be good at basketball" strategy, how effective Ohio State's new AD will be, Colorado rumors (no), CFB programs hiring media (also no), and Nick Saban eating his …

Godfrey looked a bit deeper into how a 12-team playoff system will work in practice, and he ended up feeling ... surprisingly optimistic about the future of the sport? We're just as surprised as you are. He, Alex, and Richard talk through the types of teams this new system will benefit, the tradeoffs that Cinderellas will make, and why all in all, …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Clemson filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference on Tuesday in South Carolina, seeking to free itself from the conference’s grant of rights and set up an exit from the league. Alex and Steven react to that complaint, which comes off as an absurd attempt …

College football teams now have "general managers." How did the sport get here? How are they similar to GMs for pro teams, and how are they different? And will a college GM ever be able to fire a coach? Production: Anthony Vito. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Godfrey, Richard, and Alex talk out three big news developments over the past week. The Big Ten and SEC continue (3:01) to fight for extra spots and extra money in a new College Football Playoff system, so let’s address why the arguments in their favor are so hollow.…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com The first installment of the Split Zone Duo Book Club: What's it like to write a book-length jeremiad aimed directly at the ruling class of an entire sport? Author and reporter Dan Wetzel joins Godfrey in Michigan to talk about Death to the BCS, a seminal work examin…