Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

College football history is loaded with BS national championship claims, as well as some non-consensus claims that AREN’T ridiculous. How do we tell the difference? What patterns emerge when we look at decades of disputed titles? What is the most ridiculous national title claim of all time? (Spoiler: It’s one of Alabama’s claims. But why don’t the Tide claim other titles that would be a lot less o...

Sports Podcast Festival tickets: https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/78691649/the-2nd-annual-sports-podcast-festival-raleigh-the-rialto Extra Points publisher Matt Brown joins Alex to break down a handful of big offseason stories in the business of college football. * 1:25: Donald Trump’s presidential commission on college sports, co-chaired by Nick Saban: What will it do? How will it interact with the...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com The Rice Owls have had 36 winning seasons since 1914. They once lost 18 games in a row. They have wandered from conference to conference since the death of the SWC, and despite being in a huge city that loves football, they have precious few fans. They are the only college football program to struggle so much that w...

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner close out SZD’s Offseason Vibe Check series with the Mountain West. How has everything gone for this conference and its teams between the end of the regular season and now? Let’s discuss: * The state of the Mountain West’s squabbling with the Pac-12 * New Mexico’s new head coach, Jason Eck, has been an FCS lifer * Utah State’s Bronco Mendenhall hire could be one o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Bill Belichick’s relationship with Jordon Hudson is the stuff of sports gossip legend, but we are most interested in what it says about Belichick’s ability to run an ACC football team. Alex and Richard discuss in this subscriber episode: * How Jordon filled a vacuum in UNC football communications * Why Alex thinks U...

Part 1 of this week’s episode is the continuation of SZD’s “Offseason Vibe Checks” series, checking in on the Pac-12 and the FBS independents. You may be thinking, “Nice, but that’s probably going to be a really short episode, because there are just two Pac-12 teams and three independents at the moment.” Fear not! Part 2 is an interview with author Victoria Zeller, who joins Alex to discuss her ne...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com In this live recording, Alex and Richard answer a handful of subscriber questions and take the time to talk about the factors behind Shedeur Sanders’ plummet to the fifth round of the NFL Draft. In this episode: * An announcement: Alex, Richard, and Godfrey will do a live taping at the Sports Podcast Festival in Ral...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Steven Godfrey, Richard Johnson, and Alex Kirshner check in on how things are going three-plus years after a blockbuster few days in the coach carousel. Over a few days in late 2021, USC, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, LSU, Oregon, and Miami played a high-stakes game of musical chairs. Nowadays, only a few of these teams pro...

Alex and Richard break down offseason happenings in the Mid-American Conference, which saw lots of coach carousel turnover. * Ohio: Tim Albin to Charlotte, OC Brian Smith replacing him * Ball State: An off-the-beaten-path coach hire, bringing on a guy who most recently coached non-scholarship football in the Pioneer League * Miami: It’s a Return to the MAC for QB Dequan Finn * Buffalo: Pete Lembo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Renewing our annual NFL Draft week tradition, Richard is joined by ESPN’s Ben Solak and The Athletic Football Show’s Derrik Klassen for a rollicking good time discussing the 2025 QB class. You'll be surprised at a QB the gang surprisingly can tolerate in a class that is a down year overall. Producer: Anthony Vito

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Alex and Richard take a bunch of questions from Split Zone Duo subscribers, recorded at lunch on April 15. The topics covered here include: * Is this the most wide-open track to the national title that CFB has seen in a long time? And what does it even mean for Ohio State to be “down”? * The Group of 5 schools with...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Alex and Richard react to Nico Iamaleava’s split from Tennessee. We’re less interested in where he plays next (UNC? UCLA? Elsewhere?) and more interested in talking through his last few months as a Volunteer: * The job done by Tennessee’s football staff * The way Iamaleava is doing business * How the state of Tennes...

Rodger Sherman returns for our offseason check in with the American Athletic Conference, along with Alex and Richard. The group discusses how things have been going since the end of the 2024 season for each team in the AAC: * UTSA finds reason for optimism * Rice gets a bit creative in the coach carousel * FAU makes a hire that Alex is pretty happy about * Tulsa hires a millennial from the FCS ran...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Matt Brown, publisher of the Extra Points college sports business newsletter, joins Alex to discuss a handful of big business stories that are all coming to a head around the same time. In this show: * The status of the not-quite-finished House settlement * Do we believe in the NCAA’s attempt to make sure that futur...

Alex interviews Dowell Loggains, the recently hired Appalachian State head coach who was most recently at South Carolina after a long run as an NFL assistant and coordinator. After Alex and Richard talk a bit about App State’s last 20 years, Loggains joins (17:10) to discuss: * Why he moved from the NFL to college football at a time when coaches are getting a lot of attention for doing the opposit...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com This episode is for paid subscribers, but everyone can hear a preview. If you’re not a paid subscriber, you can get a weeklong free trial . Alex Kirshner and Richard Johnson take a bunch of live questions from Split Zone Duo subscribers and discuss college football offseason news: * Maryland losing a basketball coac...

Rodger Sherman joins Alex and Richard for a checkup on all 18 teams in the beefy Big Ten, as our Offseason Vibe Check series rolls on: * Ohio State won the national championship. That’s pretty good! Both the team and coaching staff are about to look a lot different. * Penn State faces its "national championship or go away” season * Washington is very hard to figure out * Michigan might have had th...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Andrew Luck fired Stanford coach Troy Taylor after off-field investigations of his conduct came to light. In this episode for SZD subscribers, Alex and Richard discuss the circumstances of Taylor’s firing and Stanford’s challenges: * An investigation timeline going back more than a year * Stanford’s decision to stan...

The NCAA had complete control of college football TV. The association decided which games the public could watch, and where, and when, and how much money every school would earn as a result. Then came a new group called the College Football Association, an outside TV deal, and a lawsuit from two schools, Georgia and Oklahoma. What happened next, at the United States Supreme Court, created the fund...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Dan Lanning signed an extension with Oregon that makes it impossible for all but a few teams to hire him away, and most of them aren’t college. Steven Godfrey, Richard Johnson, and Alex Kirshner discuss what his contract says about the evolved pecking order in the coach carousel. After losing both Willie Taggart and...

Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson, and Dave Campbell’s Texas Football senior writer Mike Craven discuss the state of the offseason in Conference USA, a league that was spicier than most of us expected in 2024: * Jacksonville State loses the braintrust behind a conference championship and will now be completely different * WKU’s run as the cradle of coordinators continues * FIU tries an ultra-Floridia...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Alex and Richard take subscribers’ college football questions in this live recording, conducted on the Substack app on Tuesday. We call it CFB Lunch Break, because we’re taking CFB questions at lunchtime: * How we feel about player wearing #0 and single-digits * The winner and loser from the ACC’s settlement with Cl...

Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson, and Dave Campbell’s Texas Football senior writer Mike Craven discuss how the offseason is going for every team in the Big 12 Conference: * Arizona State keeps a playoff core almost totally intact * Arizona is in the danger zone after Brent Brennan’s first year * Baylor is once again ready to contend for the league * Oklahoma State is in uncharted waters * WVU and UC...

The Offseason Vibe Check series continues with the ACC, as Rodger Sherman joins Alex and Richard to talk about the state of the league. It's not a 2024 recap, and it's not a 2025 preview. It's a check-in with every team in every FBS conference about what's been happening since Thanksgiving. How was the postseason? How was the coach carousel? How was signing day? How was the transfer portal window?...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Alex and Richard take live and pre-submitted subscriber questions in this quick episode to start off the new month. Topics include: * Biff Poggi’s return to Michigan * The tough job ahead of Pitt’s new AD * Brian Kelly’s make-or-break year * Colorado State continually being just short of being something * The first...