Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

Latest Episodes:

CFB Lunch Break: What Does an Ohio State "Down Year" Even Mean? Apr 17, 2025

Show notes

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 the biggest NIL war chests

* Could Notre Dame be better than last year? (We’re skeptical.)

* How does Cal replace an entire portaled running back room?

* Would Texas reset the market for Dan Lanning?

* UAB has a new wordmark

* Is Mike Norvell’s hire of Gus Malzahn a last stand?

* Why is institutional malpractice in the MAC not a bigger story?

* Thoughts on Colorado retiring Shedeur Sanders’ number?

* City schools’ difficulty getting people to care about CFB

* Story time: Richard’s trip to Augusta National Golf Club

* Alex’s running gear recommendation

Producer: Anthony Vito

Also this week for SZD subscribers

Our subscriber episode on Nico Iamaleava leaving Tennessee:

What We Think (And Don't) About Nico Iamaleava Apr 16, 2025

Show notes

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 Tennessee helped bring about this moment

* Freedom to move around and live with the consequences

* The idea of Iamaleava’s representatives driving the boat

* How much you can blame “the NCAA” for the state of things

* Do star quarterbacks really have so much power?

* Why we think Tennessee is likely to come out ahead of its old QB

Hosts: Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson

Production: Anthony Vito

Offseason Vibe Checks 2025: The AAC Apr 14, 2025

Show notes

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 ranks

* North Texas attempts to finally play a bit of defense, and also returns to the Cam Ward Quarterback Tree

* Temple lands a proper ball coach to try a rebuild

* ECU sticks with the interim coach after a solid finish

* Charlotte also has a new head coach, but success at Charlotte might not hinge on who the 49ers hire

* Tulane 2.0 under Jon Sumrall

* UAB tries to patch a major wound with small bandages

* Army loses its entire offense

* Navy doesn’t

* USF may actually, finally, at long last, be building a new stadium

SUPPORT OUR PARTNERS AND GET COOL STUFF

* Use code SZD20 for 20% off your first order from Homefield, at www.homefieldapparel.com.

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Producer: 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.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

Unpacking College Sports Business Turmoil with Matt Brown Apr 10, 2025

Show notes

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 future “NIL” deals are really about the use of a player’s name, image, or likeness?

* How power conference schools might divide up the $20 million per year that they will share directly with their athletes

* Why Group of 5 and FCS payments will not be what they seem

* Is the settlement going to provide a big leg up for basketball schools?

* Nebraska’s AD will have the most interesting job in college sports

* How might tariffs and a bad stock market affect athletic departments?

* What about federal attacks on higher education?

* Sacramento State is trying to move to FBS. It’s questionable.

Also, here’s a cool offer for Split Zone Duo subscribers: 25 percent off a monthly or annual subscription to Extra Points by clicking this link. Matt’s newsletter is an essential read for keeping up with the off-field developments that shape college football, and we’re excited to have him stopping by.

Host: Alex Kirshner

Guest: Matt Brown

Producer: Anthony Vito

Interview: App State Coach Dowell Loggains on a Unique CFB Job Apr 07, 2025

Show notes

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 opposite

* Why he isn’t worried about spring games turning into roster poaching showcases for rival schools

* The concept of “fit” at a distinct school like App State

* Recruiting as a Group of 5 program in a crowded region

* Recruiting to a Sun Belt school vs. recruiting in the SEC

* The specific type of prospect who comes to Boone

* If he’s thinking about the House settlement and whether he’ll need to fight for resources with other sports

* The time management element of becoming a head coach

* How much he would delegate to a general manager

* Coaching Chris Johnson during his 2,000-yard season and whether that has value in the eyes of 2020s college football players

App State Flutie Effect study mentioned on the show: https://econ.appstate.edu/RePEc/pdf/wp1905.pdf

SUPPORT OUR PARTNERS AND GET COOL STUFF

* Use code SZD20 for 20% off your first order from Homefield, at www.homefieldapparel.com

* Follow Nokian Tyres on Instagram @NokianTyresNA

Hosts: Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson

Producer: 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.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

CFB Lunch Break: The Big East is a Window Into the Future Apr 02, 2025

Show notes

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 coach to the Big East is a sign of what’s coming in college sports’ new economy

* Is the SEC the next flashpoint for intra-athletic department funding over House settlement revenue share dollars?

* How about the blue-blood men’s basketball schools like Kentucky and Duke?

* How will this new era affect the service academies?

* Do we believe that NIL has ruined the NCAA hoops tournaments?

* Does Richard believe in Florida’s offensive play-calling apparatus?

* What is Alex’s problem with Wisconsin?

* Let’s talk about Georgia Tech’s defensive line

* Frank Reich to Stanford

* Pac-12 realignment musical chairs

* The Athletics’ horrible treatment of Sacramento, and thoughts on torpedo bats

Producer: Anthony Vito

Also this week from Split Zone Duo

Offseason Vibe Checks 2025: The Big Ten Mar 31, 2025

Show notes

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 the best non-OSU run of any team in the country from Thanksgiving through Signing Day

* Purdue welcomes Barry Odom to a difficult gig

* Nebraska has a notably quiet offseason as Dana Holgorsen, a late-season hire from 2024, tries to fix the offense

* UCLA starts more or less from scratch, again

* Iowa makes a portal addition to be very excited about

* Wisconsin makes portal additions to be less excited about

* Indiana has a chance to avoid a massive decline (?)

* Minnesota needs to replace wideout production but has an intriguing QB

* Oregon just keeps on chugging on the trail

* Maryland is lining up a major recruiting win but needs to keep it together, not just through Signing Day but well beyond

* Michigan State’s talent acquisition is going in the wrong direction

* Rutgers shows encouraging signs

* USC faces a truly make-or-break year

* Illinois and Bret Bielema are change agents for CFB’s rules

* Northwestern gets the full Rodger explanation

Producer: Anthony Vito

Hosts: Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson

Guest: Rodger Sherman

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

Stanford Is a Bad Job Now Mar 26, 2025

Show notes

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 stand by Taylor until there was public heat

* How this mirrors Northwestern’s firing of Pat Fitzgerald

* Andrew Luck’s role as the key decision-maker for Stanford

* Alex wonders if Stanford is even a good job anymore

* Richard is very confident that it is NOT

* Stanford’s unique challenges in a post-House settlement world

* Recruits’ fading or nonexistent memories of the days when Stanford was one of the best programs in the country

* Why the college sports industry will be watching Luck as GM

This episode is for paid subscribers, but everyone can hear a free preview. You can sign up for a weeklong free trial at https://www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

When The Supreme Court Imploded College Football Mar 24, 2025

Show notes

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 fundamentals of how all of us watch college football today.

Jay Willis is the editor-in-chief of Balls and Strikes, an independent outlet that covers the Supreme Court. (He’s also a big Cal football fan.) Jay joins host Alex Kirshner to dive deep into NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, the case that destroyed the old world of college football TV and created a huge mess in its place. As we’ll learn, that took a while to clean up.

Producer: 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.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

Did Oregon Just Make Itself Poach-Proof? Mar 19, 2025

Show notes

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 Mario Cristobal to Florida schools, has Oregon now ascended to be poaching-proof from everyone except the NFL, Ohio State, and Georgia? We run down some hypotheticals about LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma, FSU, and Clemson.

Hosts: Steven Godfrey, Richard Johnson, Alex Kirshner

Producer: Anthony Vito

This episode is for SZD subscribers

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Meanwhile, everyone can hear a short preview of this show.